Patient Stories

Karabagh Boy’s Sight Saved Through International Effort
Manya Sargsyan was cleaning up after dinner on a September evening in 2004 when a “horrible blow” shook the adjacent room, leaving her 15-year-old son Pavel covered in blood and screaming.  A minute before, she had noticed her son sitting on the sofa playing with a flashlight.  In fact, he had been playing with an electrical detonator.  As Pavel later explained, “I did not realize it was dangerous.  It had a string on it, and I thought that if I connect the string to a bulb and plug it in I would have a nice flashlight.” 

Sargsyan grabbed her son and rushed him to the regional hospital where he underwent surgery to stop the profuse bleeding from his abdomen.  It wasn’t until later, when Pavel was recovering from the operation, that he realized that there was something wrong with his vision.  The explosion had left a tiny piece of shrapnel and a traumatic cataract in his right eye.  Local doctors told Sargsyan that Pavel’s sight could only be saved if they traveled from their home in Mashkalashen Village, in the Nagoro-Karabagh Republic (NKR), to Yerevan for an operation that would cost hundreds of dollars.  Sargsyan and her four children live on her widow’s pension of $60 per month, and they did not have the means to get to Yerevan, much less pay for the sight-restoring operation.   

“I lost my husband to a mine,” Sargsyan lamented, “I wish I could have recognized the object.”  Sargsyan’s husband was killed in November of 1994 in a mine explosion after being involved with regional fighting for seven years.  Manya and Pavel had little hope of finding a way to Yerevan.  They could not have guessed that a concerned traveler, an American foundation, and two international nonprofit organizations would hear Pavel’s story and join resources to save his sight.

Ian Gaham Leask is a writer, literary consultant and co-host of a Minneapolis radio program called “Write on Radio.”  A Briton living in the U.S., he first became aware of Armenian issues when he helped a Diasporian write a book about his family from Harput.  As he learned more about Armenia’s history, he became very “impressed at the way the Karabaghi Armenians stood up for themselves, under what at first looked like impossible odds.”  He decided that he had to go to Karabagh “to really comprehend it,” so he bought a ticket and traveled alone to the NKR in December of 2004. 

Upon his arrival, Leask met with representatives of The HALO Trust, a British organization dedicated to clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance from post-conflict countries around the world.  Last year alone, HALO Nagorno-Karabagh removed over 1,000 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines.  Leask toured the area with the Project’s Mine Risk Education team and witnessed the devastation of mine accidents.  One of the places he visited with team leader and translator Gala Danilova was the home of Pavel and his mother.  Through Danilova, Leask spoke extensively with them.  “I felt their great will to survive and saw a picture of the boys' father,” he remembers, “You could see the resemblance.”  He left their home wishing that he could help them and “spent days fretting about it afterwards.”

Back home in Minneapolis, Leask immediately contacted Program Officer Lou Ann Matossian at the Cafesjian Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on U.S.-Armenia relations and sustainable economic development.  Touched by Pavel's story, Matossian was also aware that the Foundation had granted more than $200,000 to the Armenian EyeCare Project since 2001.  At the suggestion of Vice President John J. Waters, Jr., Matossian called the AECP office in California to offer additional assistance on Pavel's behalf. 

The Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP) is dedicated to eliminating preventable blindness in Armenia through direct care, public education, medical education and training, research and capacity building.  The Project often responds to direct requests from Diaspora to facilitate ophthalmologic treatment for Armenian adults and children in need of care.  Upon hearing about Pavel’s desperate situation, AECP President Dr. Roger Ohanesian immediately offered the EyeCare Project’s support and resources.  The AECP office in Yerevan worked with Danilova at the HALO Project to bring Pavel and his mother to Yerevan as soon as possible. 

At the S. Malayan Ophthalmologic Hospital in Yerevan, Director Dr. Alex Malayan, assisted by Dr. Armine Grigoryan, removed the piece of shrapnel from Pavel’s eye, extracted the cataract and implanted an intraocular lens.  Everyone involved was relieved to hear that Pavel had received treatment in time, and that the vision in his injured eye had been restored to 20/20.  His mother exclaimed, “I have no words to express my feelings.  Everyone has been so kind to us, so considerate.”

Transportation, lodging, food, professional fees and medication were provided at no cost to Pavel and his family.  The total cost to save Pavel’s sight was around $500, reasonable by U.S. standards, but completely inaccessible to a family that receives only $60 each month.  The AECP will make sure that Pavel and his mother can return to Yerevan in several months for a follow-up visit.  The organization will also continue its public education campaign about landmines and explosive devices in hopes of preventing cases like this in the future.        

Dr. Ohanesian was pleased with the speed at which everyone responded.  “When you look at the circuitous way that we heard about this case,” he said, “it really makes you marvel.  We have a system in place to react to serious eye diseases quickly and get patients to the appropriate doctor for immediate treatment.  This gives the patient the best chances for a successful outcome.” 

Gerard L. Cafesjian, founding President and CEO of the Cafesjian Family Foundation, sees this success as the first of many.  “Our involvement in this case came about in the first place because a caring individual, with no personal or family ties to Karabagh, started building a chain of support between Minneapolis and Stepanakert,” he said, “but it has also deepened the connection between two valuable organizations, HALO and the AECP, which may ultimately benefit a large number of people.”  Indeed, the relationship between all parties involved will not end with Pavel.  Leask has been invited to accompany Dr. Ohanesian and his team on the AECP’s next medical mission to Armenia in June 2005. 

After hearing about Pavel’s remarkable recovery, Leask said, “I can’t praise the Armenian community enough in the way it gathers around and attends to a problem.”  He has not spoken with the boy or his mother since the day he first met them in their home in Karabakh, and he says he doesn’t need to.  “They know what’s in my heart,” he explains, “and I know what’s in theirs.”