UPDATE: Meyersdal eye specialist helps Alberton military veteran

The Alberton Record reported on August 17 about Kevin Beeton, an Alberton-based South African Defense Force/SADF (precursor of the South African National Defense Force/SANDF) veteran, suffering from cataracts.

At the time of reporting, Beeton had been on a waiting list for cataract surgery at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital for two years.

“I don’t have medical aid. I want these cataracts removed, but I do not have the money to do it,” Beeton said at the time.

Not long after we published the story, Beeton got a call from an eye specialist in Meyersdal.

“A staff member at the Ear and Eye Clinic in Meyersdal saw my story in the Alberton Record and told Dr Edmond Vincent Hodgson-Jervis about it. I got a call from the doctor’s practice offering to perform a cataract surgery for free. I was so happy and couldn’t believe it. A Good Samaritan had come to my rescue,” said Beeton.

The first phase of the cataract removal was on October 9.

Hodgson-Jervis is a general ophthalmologist (eye care specialist) practising in SA and a partner and surgeon at the Ear and Eye Clinic in Meyersdal.

He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) in 1998. He then completed his Fellowship of the College of Ophthalmologists of South Africa (FC Ophth) (SA) and did an ophthalmology residency programme at the St John Eye Hospital from 2003-2008.

Beeton will return for a check-up on November 19.

“They operated only on one eye because they cannot operate on both eyes simultaneously. My eyesight is much better now, and I can see well. I only use my glasses to read,” said Beeton.

Beeton served in the army for 20 years, which recognised him for commendable service in 1989.

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