Dr. Jon Haymore, Spokane, and Inland Eye Center, Colfax

Loretta Higgins, Veronica Haymore, Nathan Brown, Dr. Jon Haymore and Isabel Haymore with their last cataract patient on their April medical mission to Honduras.

Dr. Jonathon Haymore is a familiar doctor in Colfax, practicing at Inland Eye Center here and in Spokane. He sees patients and performs surgeries in Colfax on Mondays and Tuesdays.

In early April, Dr. Haymore and his team went on a medical mission to Honduras in Central America. The trip was in the planning stage for six months. Dr. Haymore, another eye surgeon and two eye plastic surgeons, his ophthalmology professors and training partner went on the trip. The two professors were also residency partners when they were in surgical training, and they have been practicing for 25 years.

Dr. Haymore had done a medical mission to Peru, so he had experience planning and preparing for a mission. The difficult part was gathering all of the surgical equipment, cataract surgery machine and donations of supplies. Rockwood Medical Foundation donated $8,500 to help the team.

His team plans to do this every year, so the capital costs for medical equipment will not be so high for future missions.

While in Honduras, the team performed 93 eye surgeries on patients ranging from four years into their 80s.

The best part, said Dr. Haymore, was that it was pure medicine – no paperwork, no insurance, no external factors. The one question was, is this surgery going to be helpful?

Donations help with supplies, equipment and flights for the surgical nurses, volunteers to manage patient flow and translators.

“An estimated 39 million people worldwide are blind because of cataracts. And they have little access to eye surgery,” said Haymore. Doctors in Honduras make lists of patients who need eye surgery and cannot afford it. Poverty there is extreme.

Most people in the United States have seen someone with a cloudy eye, signifying a cataract. Dr. Haymore’s “before” photos show such advanced cataracts that they could be diagnosed by anyone.

The worst cataract for Dr. Haymore was on a homeless man who wandered in off the street and was their last patient in Honduras. His, like other severe cataracts, require a couple of weeks to heal. Milder cases heal more rapidly.

Dr. Haymore’s daughter, Isabel, cleaned, repaired and labeled glasses. Veronica, his wife, helped manage patient flow.

“She’s a great organizer, a former math teacher,” he commented. She held patients’ hands and reassured them during eye surgery.

“Cataract surgery is the ideal surgery for medical outreach. It has huge impact on people’s lives, and it takes 20 minutes to do. Their quality of life improves dramatically.”

Dr. Haymore is a graduate of the University of Rochester Medical School and did his residency at Syracuse University. Veronica is from upstate New York, so that influenced his decisions for his medical education.

Performing eye surgeries at Whitman Hospital and Medical Center allows patients in the area to have surgery and follow-up exams near their homes. Dr. Haymore credits the hospital with keeping up with advances in eye surgery and providing modern equipment for use in eye surgery.

Dr. Michael Cunningham, whom Dr. Haymore joined several years ago at Inland Eye Clinic, was the first to bring eye surgeries to Colfax. Dr. Cunningham retired, and Dr. Haymore continues to serve Whitman County patients here.

His team plans to go on a medical mission every year during spring break.

Donations of used glasses in frames are welcome at their Colfax and Spokane offices.

This April they will return to La Cieba, Honduras, to establish an enduring cataract surgery room and to perform almost 100 cataract surgeries. Dr. Haymore will transport a surgical microscope and all of the equipment and supplies they will need to perform surgeries year after year.

Anyone wishing to make a monetary donation can send it to Rockwood Clinic Accounting Office, in care of Shelley Cloy, 601 W. 5th, Suite 200, Spokane, WA 99204.

Checks can be made payable to the Rockwood Medical Foundation–Eye Surgery. Donations may also be dropped off with reception at Inland Eye Center in Colfax at Whitman Hospital and at the Medical Center campus, 842 South Cowley Street in Spokane.