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Class Notes p r o f i l e s
David Knight
’68
Dr. David Knight displays a pair of loupes in his Middlebury, Conn., office.
By Henry McNulty ’65
Loupes Around the World A pair of loupes – high-tech magnifying lenses on an eyeglass frame – is commonly used by American surgeons because they allow doctors to see tiny structures more clearly. In developing countries, however, loupes are rarely available, even for those performing complicated microsurgeries, because they are so expensive – about $1,000 a pair. That’s changing now, thanks to the work of Dr. David C. Knight ’68 and the organization he founded, Loupes Around the World. “Five years ago, I went with a group of 50 general surgeons to Vietnam and Cambodia,” he explains. “It was in Cambodia that I met a plastic surgeon named Ly Heng, who told me about some complex reconstructive surgery that he had done. But he didn’t have loupes, because he is paid $70 a month by the government, and he couldn’t afford them. So I said, ‘Well, I’m going to get you a pair.’” Back home, David did some research and discovered just how rare loupes are in ThirdWorld surgeries, and it wasn’t long before he had founded Loupes Around the World. To date, the organization has given out nearly 200 pairs of loupes to doctors in 42 countries. David has been a general surgeon at Waterbury (Conn.) Hospital for more than 25 years. Last fall, the hospital honored him as its Humanitarian of the Year, citing not only his founding of Loupes Around the World but his many volunteer missions to Africa. Some of the loupes, ones that may be adjusted to fit different users, are bought from a distributor at cost – about $300 a pair. Others are custom-fitted and provided free of charge by Designs for Vision, Inc., an optical products company in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Still others are donated by doctors who no longer need them.
Funds to purchase the loupes have come from several sources. “Obviously, family and friends have been very generous and helpful,” David explains. “There’s also a foundation in Virginia that gave us a grant to do this. They really liked the idea that there’s no administrative expense – every penny goes to buy loupes for surgeons who need them.” Donations are received through the group’s web site, www.loupesaroundtheworld.org. The web site is also used by surgeons seeking loupes. “In Africa, there’s a lot of pediatric urology surgery,” David says. “Before, that had to be done without loupes. Surgeons have written me to say that with the loupes, it’s like a different operation – it’s so much cleaner, it’s so much better, and they just know that they’re doing a better job.” Twice a year, David also spends two weeks as a volunteer surgeon in Liberia with the group Health Education And Relief Through Teaching (HEARTT), which was started by a doctor of Liberian heritage in Bridgeport, Conn. At one such session, HEARTT held a fundraiser in Monrovia. At the event, “I introduced myself as a general surgeon from Connecticut,” David recalls. “When the evening was over, a young Liberian woman came up to me and said, ‘I went to school in Connecticut.’ I asked her where, and she said ‘a boarding school called Choate Rosemary Hall.’" She was Idella Cooper ’94, now Liberia’s Deputy Minister of Justice for Economic Affairs. “I thought it was pretty amazing to meet another Choatie in Monrovia,” David laughs. “What are the chances of that?”