NORTHGLEN News reporter, Mariclair Smit, traded her usual tekkies, t-shirt and jeans for scrubs on Thursday, to witness the intricacies of a cataract surgery in celebration of Eye Care Awareness Month.

She was given a back-stage pass with ophthalmologist, Nasser Khan as he was set to operate on one of their own, retired nurse, Thembi Maphalala at the new Medstone Medical Centre’s uMhlanga Eye Institute.

The 73-year-old had been a theatre nurse for over 30 years. She joined the Netcare Umhlanga team nurse back in 1986. Over the last few years a cataract in her right eye has slowly been stealing her vision.

“I am not nervous at all,” she said minutes before she would undergo the life-altering surgery. “These are all familiar faces. They are my babies. I trained a lot of them,” she said proudly.

Dr Khan explained that cataracts, which is an opacity of the lens, primarily develops as people age, however, in some cases patients are born with cataracts (congenital cataracts), while other forms are caused by trauma or diseases such as diabetes.

WARNING: graphic content

Fortunately, the vision of cataract patients can easily be restored during a 15-minute surgery under local, where the surgeon removes the clouded lens and replaces it with an acrylic lens implant.