More Than 100 Patients Receive Free Eye Prostheses in Cancún

Cancún, Quintana Roo — More than 100 patients received free eye prostheses in Cancún during October, an effort that drew people from at least four states because the procedure is prohibitively expensive in the private sector.

Emmanuel Narváez García, coordinator of special medical programs at the DIF family services agency in Benito Juárez, said 40% of the patients treated during this year’s Ocular Prosthesis Campaign were first-timers, while the rest came for follow-up care. About 20% of the patients were children.

Narváez said most people lose an eye to trauma, accidents or congenital conditions, and in some cases to cancer.

He said patients traveled to Cancún from Yucatán, Tabasco, Nuevo León and other states because the service is provided at no cost. In the private sector, a single ocular prosthesis costs between 25,000 and 30,000 pesos.

“Medical care is free, so patients came from states such as Yucatán, Tabasco and Nuevo León, among others, because in the private sector the cost of the prosthesis is between 25,000 and 30,000 pesos,” he said.

Organizers opened a registration period beforehand to compile a list of people who needed a prosthesis. Specialists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Universidad Autónoma de Campeche traveled to Cancún to evaluate the more than 100 people who signed up.

The medical teams set up a workshop on site and make each prosthesis by hand, fitting them for both first-time and returning patients.

DIF Benito Juárez holds the campaign every year, with two main editions in March and October, to deliver prostheses that are fully free and customized for each patient.

An ocular prosthesis has an average useful life of three to five years, though with proper care and regular checkups it can last five to 10 years or longer in some cases.