About this item
From the co-author of Three Cups of Tea comes the inspiring story of two very different doctorsmdashone from the United States the other from Nepalmdashunited in a common mission to rid the world of preventable blindness In this transporting book David Oliver Relin shines a light on the work of Geoffrey Tabin and Sanduk Ruit gifted ophthalmologists who have dedicated their lives to restoring sight to some of the worldrsquos most isolated impoverished people through the Himalayan Cataract Project an organization they founded in Tabin was the high-achieving bad boy of Harvard Medical School an accomplished mountain climber and adrenaline junkie as brilliant as he was unconventional Ruit grew up in a remote Nepalese village where he became intimately acquainted with the human costs of inadequate access to health care Together they found their lifersquos calling tending to the afflicted people of the Himalayas a vast mountainous region with an alarmingly high incidence of cataract blindness Second Suns takes us from improvised plywood operating tables in villages without electricity or plumbing to state-of-the-art surgical centers at major American universities where these two driven men are restoring sightmdashand hopemdashto patients from around the world With their revolutionary inexpensive style of surgery Tabin and Ruit have been able to cure tens of thousandsmdashall for about twenty dollars per operation David Oliver Relin brings the doctorsrsquo work to vivid life through poignant portraits of patients helped by the surgery from old men who cannot walk treacherous mountain trails unaided to cataract-stricken children who have not seen their mothersrsquo faces for years With the dexterity of a master storyteller Relin shows the profound emotional and practical impact that these operations have had on patientsrsquo lives Second Suns is the moving unforgettable story of how two men with a shared dream are changing the world one pair of eyes at a timePraise for Second Suns ldquoAs miracles go itrsquos hard to beat making the blind see Yet thatrsquos exactly what the eye surgeon Dr Geoffrey Tabin can do He services poor people in the developing world who have developed cataractsmdasha clouding of the lens of the eye that is the worldrsquos leading cause of blindness Second Suns is a hopeful work a profile of two doctors who have dedicated their lives to bringing light to those in darknessrdquomdashTime ldquoA compelling and inspiring book Second Suns portrays heroic health care delivered under harrowing conditions Ruit and his teams carry their equipment on multi-day treks up steep mountain trails sometimes hiking at night with flashlights or head lamps to reach settlements where they typically spend several days operating on hundreds of villagers in makeshift surgical theatersrdquomdashThe Washington Post ldquoSecond Suns should be required reading for anybody with an interest in humanitarian philanthropymdashor for that matter a desire to feel a little better about the worldrdquomdashOutside ldquoA detailed heartfelt account of the work of two dedicated pioneersrdquomdashKirkus ReviewsFrom the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
David Oliver Relin is an award-winning writer and contributor to Parade and Skiing Magazine. For two decades, Relin has focused on reporting about social issues and their effect on children, both in the U.S., and around the world. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
