Photo/Illutration Hiroshi Sasaki at Kamaishi Nozomi Hospital in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, on June 14 (Masakazu Higashino)

KAMAISHI, Iwate Prefecture--While pop music blared in the operating room, Hiroshi Sasaki performed cataract surgery on nearly 40 patients, having started early in the morning with a slot of five or six minutes allotted to each.

He finished up around noon and started on his journey home.

The following morning, a Monday, Sasaki, 62, was scheduled to be on call at Kanazawa Medical University, his full-time workplace in Uchinada, Ishikawa Prefecture, 540 kilometers from here.

Sasaki goes to Kamaishi once a month to perform eye surgery. July marked the 14th year since he began doing so. He has performed more than 5,300 surgeries here to date.

He tends to play upbeat pop songs by the likes of Eiichi Ohtaki and Kaze Fujii when he works in the operating room.

HOW IT STARTED

Shortly after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, this northeastern community found itself with only one clinic that still offered cataract surgery, even when two towns to the north of Kamaishi--Otsuchi and Yamada--were included.

Some residents of the community had to make overnight trips to eye clinics further inland. Others, strapped for money following the disaster, gave up on treatment.

A former official of the Kamaishi city government got in touch with the chairman of the KMU Board of Directors, an old friend, to ask if his university could send an eye doctor to the city.

Sasaki took it upon himself to help and began making trips to the Kamaishi hospital in 2012. The idea that it was somebody else’s problem didn’t mesh with Sasaki because he was raised in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, also on the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region, until he reached junior high school age.

The former Kamaishi official also approached a charity group, which donated medical equipment.

Sasaki comes from a family of ophthalmologists. His grandfather was a doctor with a private practice, and his father worked at Tohoku University Hospital. Sasaki’s two sons are eye doctors, too.

His older son Makoto, 34, also works for KMU and has assisted his father in Kamaishi.

“Surgery makes a significant difference” in cataract treatment, Sasaki said.

He reckons he has performed around 50,000 eye operations in Ishikawa Prefecture, not only at KMU but also in the Noto Peninsula region, which he visited to offer on-site consultations.

Sasaki has also been busy overseas, where his research showed him that in some countries, many people without access to cataract surgery end up losing their sight.

He said one of his ambitions is to set up surgery bases in South America.

“You get so much information from your vision,” Sasaki said. “Improving your vision, therefore, makes the quality of your life dramatically better. I hope to continue doing this for as long as I live.”

Related News