Roli Ukoko came to Hawaiʻi from Nigeria for her daughter, who needed surgery at Shriners Children’s Hawaiʻi. During the visit, a staff member noticed that even with her thick glasses, Ukoko was struggling to see.
“I didn't even know I had something very wrong with my eyes,” Ukoko said. “I thought it was normal.”
That observation led to an eye exam at LensCrafters, where Ukoko learned she had cataracts. Months later, that unexpected connection would bring her to WikiVision, a student-led nonprofit providing free cataract surgery to people who are uninsured, underinsured or have difficulty accessing the procedure.
Ukoko had surgery on one eye in July. In September, she flew back to Hawaiʻi from Nigeria specifically to have her second eye treated.
“This has been a dream come true,” she said.
Clearer vision means Ukoko can return to something she loves.
“I'm the type of person who likes to learn. I'm always learning, but I noticed that for some time I've not been able to learn because of my eyes,” she said. “I like to read, and I like to learn a lot.”
Across the surgery center on this Saturday morning in Iwilei, Karen B. was thinking about Christmas.
Karen had lived with cataracts for roughly three to five years. Her vision became gradually foggier, making driving difficult and eventually forcing her to give up one of her favorite hobbies.
“I couldn't sew,” she said.
With her surgery complete, Karen already had plans.
“Yes, because Christmas is coming around,” she said. “I have some projects in the works.”
Those are the special, life-changing moments behind WikiVision.
Founded in 2021 by Hawaiʻi students Arabella and Alexander Tan, the nonprofit began by helping eight patients. Dr. Vivien Tham, a clinical professor in the John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Surgery and one of the ophthalmologists involved with WikiVision, said the program has since helped more than 200 people regain their vision.
This year's cataract surgery day served more than 30 patients. Community donations, volunteer staff from the Eye Surgery Center of Hawaiʻi and participating ophthalmologists support the surgeries, eye drops and pre- and post-operative care.
Cataracts can affect patients earlier in Hawaiʻi
A cataract develops when the natural lens of the eye becomes cloudy, making it increasingly difficult to see. In an interview with KHON, Tham said Hawaiʻi's year-round sun exposure makes awareness especially important. She said cataracts commonly affect people in their 70s and 80s on the continent, while she sees people in Hawaiʻi affected as early as their 40s and 50s. She points to strong ultraviolet exposure as a factor and encourages people to protect their eyes with sunglasses.
On this day, one WikiVision patient was considerably younger. At 25, Charles Uhauhio coaches wide receivers at Nānākuli High School. Cataracts had left him relying heavily on one eye. Brightness bothered him; driving was difficult and simply moving through everyday life became harder.
“It's gonna help my life by just seeing the world clearly,” Uhauhio said of his surgery. “Everything's bright, everything's just harder to move and operate, so I guess it would just help make my life easier.”
Uhauhio said the experience also affected him mentally.
“It really just affects the person too, mentally, and just puts them down because, you know, it just makes life harder,” he said.
Uhauhio, a father of two children, likened this September morning to Christmas.
“I'm very blessed,” Uhauhio said. “Just thankful for everybody here doing it, and just giving everybody an opportunity to do it.”
Learning medicine from the patient's lens
For JABSOM students Caitlin Tanji, Brooke Yasuda and Cadie Young, WikiVision begins months before surgery day. Students help find patients who need care, conduct outreach, participate in screenings and pre-operative visits, learn their patients' stories and stay with them through surgery and follow-up care.
Tanji, WikiVision's CEO, said the team began outreach about six months before surgery day, connecting with organizations across Oʻahu and advertising in MidWeek. That's how Karen found the program.
On surgery day, the students traded the classroom for scrubs. Tanji checked on patients she had met during screening and pre-operative visits, calmed their nerves, followed them into the operating room and checked on them afterward.
“I feel like I'm learning a lot about medicine and what it means to be a physician in Hawaiʻi,” Tanji said. “It's about being there for the patient before addressing any concerns, as well as patient education.”
Karen experienced that care firsthand. She admitted she was nervous before entering the operating room. Having Tanji beside her made a difference.
“I have a little bit of history with Catie. My daughter and grandson both went to Mid-Pac and that’s where Catie went. We connected over that during the initial pre-op meeting and now I feel so much more comfortable,” Karen said.
For Tanji, those relationships are shaping the physician she hopes to become.
“For me, it's really important to connect with patients and get to know them,” she said.
The experience is also giving the students an unusually close look at ophthalmology. Tanji said watching the precision required during cataract surgery has piqued her interest in microsurgery.
Yasuda, a third-year medical student, and WikiVision’s COO, already had an interest in ophthalmology and saw the non-profit as an opportunity to explore the specialty while serving the community. One of her patients was anxious about surgery and afraid of needles. Yasuda had already gotten to know her through earlier visits, and on surgery day, she stayed close.
“Everything that I can do to try to make her day a little bit less stressful, to see a familiar face and someone that she kind of has been building trust with, is something that I've been just trying to be there for her today,” Yasuda said. “She's a little anxious, so holding her hand and being there for her is something that I've been really trying to do today.”
For first-year medical student and WikiVision’s CFO, Cadie Young, listening has become one of the biggest lessons. Working with uninsured patients has shown her the importance of empathy and patience. Some of the people she met were exhausted from years of work and other challenges.
“I think just being there to listen to them has been really impactful,” she said.
The experience has also made Young interested in caring for older adults. Building relationships with patients over repeated visits has taught her the value of continuity of care and helped shape the direction she may eventually take in medicine.
“It was really funny because we just had a module on patient history and how to talk to patients, so it directly correlates with what I’m doing today,” Young said. “I've also taken my experience from working in ophthalmology before as an MA, and to me, for this population of people who are uninsured, you really have to be empathetic and just lend them an ear. I realized many of them haven't expressed being scared of the surgery as much; more so, they're just exhausted from working and working. So I think they're more grateful than scared.”
That lesson reaches well beyond ophthalmology.
Tanji said interviewing WikiVision patients has shown her how vision loss can affect a person's ability to drive, play with their children and live independently.
“I've learned from that that medicine is more than just treating the disease,” Tanji said. “It's also about learning how the disease impacts their quality of life.”
For Ukoko, that quality of life means being able to read again.
For Karen, it means returning to her sewing projects in time for Christmas.
For Uhauhio, it means seeing the football field and the rest of the world clearly again.
For the JABSOM students standing beside them, WikiVision is showing what restoring someone's sight can teach a future physician about truly seeing the person in front of them.
If you would like to learn more about WikiVision or donate to the efforts, please visit: https://wikivision.info
