In May 2025, Eversight supported a second medical service trip to Guatemala City, continuing a growing partnership to expand access to vision care for those in need. With donated corneal tissue from Eversight, Charles Bouchard, MD and his team performed another 10 sight-restoring transplants—bringing the total to 20 surgeries across both visits.
This second trip featured the dedicated work of local healthcare professionals, Lilyan Leon Nieto, MD and Zenia Sandoval, MD, who shared their firsthand experience of the tremendous need for care in Guatemala and the powerful impact of international collaboration.
Building capacity in a country in need
Dr. Nieto, originally from Cuba, has spent much of her life in Guatemala City. As a retinal specialist at Visualiza, she is deeply familiar with the country’s challenges in accessing eye care.
“Guatemala has a population of 18 million people, and from those, two million suffer from visual impairment mainly due to diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, refractive errors, glaucoma, among many others. But in the whole country, we have only about 250 ophthalmologists,” Dr. Nieto said. “Eighty percent live in the capital city. That leaves many rural areas with no ophthalmologist at all.”
For perspective, of the approximately 340 million people who live in the United States, seven million experience visual impairment or blindness. And there are approximately 18,000 ophthalmologists in the U.S. This means Guatemala’s rate of visual impairment is more than five times higher than in the U.S., with far fewer eye care specialists to meet the need.
To meet the growing need, Visualiza launched an ophthalmology residency program, of which Dr. Nieto now serves as the academic coordinator. Still, the resources are limited—and donor tissue is especially hard to come by.
“In all of Guatemala, there may be five corneas available at a time,” said Dr. Nieto. “Every hospital has a waiting list, and the wait can take more than 10 months. If a patient gets sick while waiting, they lose their chance.”
By contrast, in the United States there is no waiting list for cornea transplants. Domestic demand is consistently met, allowing donated tissue to be shared with patients in need around the world—including those in countries like Guatemala where the shortage is critical.
That’s why the arrival of 10 corneal tissues from Eversight was so significant. With the support of Dr. Bouchard and coordination between Eversight and Visualiza, more patients were able to access care—at no cost.
Sight restoration in Guatemala
Many of the patients seen during the trip had lost hope that they would ever see again. Dr. Nieto recalled one patient, a young orphan with keratoconus, who had no light perception in one eye and extremely low vision in the other.
“He always thought there was no hope for him,” she said. “And now, he is seeing. We charged nothing for these surgeries. To see his face afterward—it marked me.”
Dr. Sandoval, a key member of Visualiza’s anterior segment team, was instrumental in coordinating the patient selection, surgery planning and follow-up care. She explained how deep the impact goes for each transplant recipient.
“When someone regains vision, they can work again. Most of our patients live day by day—what they earn today feeds their family tonight,” she said. “When they can see again, they can provide again.”
Overcoming barriers to care
Dr. Sandoval and Dr. Nieto described the logistical challenges many patients face before surgery.
“Sometimes the eye bank calls and says, ‘You have one hour to confirm a patient,’” Dr. Sandoval said. “But that patient might live 10 hours away. They need to travel, find a bank to withdraw money, and send proof. And if they can’t do it in time, the cornea goes to another hospital.”
Having the tissue in hand allowed Visualiza to bypass those obstacles and act quickly.
“We knew we had the corneas. We brought the patients. We did the surgeries. It was amazing,” said Dr. Nieto.
Even postoperatively, the team used a creative approach to follow-up. Ophthalmologists and other healthcare professionals at distant clinics connected with patients via telemedicine to ensure they healed well, and complications were managed quickly.
A priceless gift
“The tissue from Eversight was priceless,” said Dr. Nieto. “This partnership didn’t just help Visualiza. It helped Guatemala.”
Patients treated through Eversight’s global aid program can now return to their communities able to live independently, rejoin the workforce and reconnect with loved ones, while also regaining something less tangible but just as vital: confidence, dignity and hope. Guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), the program is grounded in the belief that vision is a fundamental human right, striving to ensure that everyone—regardless of circumstance—has access to corneal transplantation.
None of this would be possible without the selfless decision made by donors and their families to give the gift of sight. Eversight honors their generosity by ensuring each donated cornea finds a home, changing someone’s life forever.
“It's much more than just returning them to their community, to work and to learn and to have a full life, but also the confidence that you are bringing to their psyche, to their mind– that's priceless,” Dr. Nieto said.
Many patients in Guatemala work in fields and can get ulcers or experience trauma to their eyes. One such patient traveled eight hours to receive eye care after a snake bit his eye while working.
“Of course he's going to lose that cornea. We know that, but if we can save that eye, maybe in the future we can have a hope of doing a cornea transplant.
As Visualiza continues to bring care to every corner of Guatemala, both doctors hope this partnership with Eversight can continue to grow.
“We hope we receive this donation again,” said Dr. Sandoval. “Our patients are doing great, and we are so grateful. This is help they cannot get any other way.”
Dr. Nieto agreed: “These international collaborations are amazing and what Eversight did was incredible for us. Even if we have no patients, we can give this tissue to another hospital and so this is a help for the Guatemalan community, not just for Visualiza.”
