By Torrey DeKeyser
Do you have a vision problem? Or do you know someone who has glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy or macular degeneration? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were new and improved preventive or curative treatments for those and other blinding eye diseases? It could happen! And work on those very issues is happening at UAB!
That’s why when the opportunity to make a planned gift to the UAB Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences arose several years ago, it was an easy decision to say “Yes!”
I had the good fortune to serve for 22 years as Executive Director of the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama (ESFA), a health legacy foundation that provides grants to charitable organizations engaged in eye research, patient care and professional and patient education. This grantmaking organization was formed 25 years ago when UAB bought the former Eye Foundation Hospital—now UAB Callahan Eye Hospital. The money from that sale became the corpus of the EyeSight Foundation. UAB Ophthalmology and the Callahan Eye Hospital have been the biggest recipients of ESFA’s grants. Because of this long-term relationship, I was closely involved with the ophthalmology experts at UAB’s School of Medicine and the Callahan Eye Hospital.
This is what I learned and what I know:
Leading the EyeSight Foundation has given me the experience of seeing the impact of charitable giving on an academic medical program at UAB. For more than two decades, the foundation’s support has helped transform the ophthalmology research program, as well as attract and retain some of the brightest minds in the field while directly supporting their work. Getting to know the ophthalmology clinicians and scientists, as well as the hospital administrators, has been a lesson in excellence. Their dedication is unsurpassed and their desire to prevent and cure eye disease and help patients is intense.
As a patient, I have benefited tremendously from this amazing program. I am blind in my right eye so having access to these amazing people and outstanding hospital to protect my “good” eye has been a true blessing. After three different surgeries with three different specialists for three different issues at Callahan Eye Hospital, I can honestly say I had a great experience every time – not just with the surgeons but with every member of the staff. Likewise, I receive the best ongoing care from my regular eye doctors at UAB. I love telling anyone who asks about my experience because Callahan is a jewel and I want everyone to know.
Accepting that my right eye was non-functioning happened years ago when I was a child. But it has given me so much empathy for all patients, while also having an appreciation of what the foundation has been able to accomplish by supporting ophthalmology and Callahan Eye Hospital at UAB. Combine that with the generosity of grateful patients, family members, alumni and friends of ophthalmology and you have a powerful “cocktail” of support that makes almost anything possible.
But that pipeline of giving needs to be nurtured and expanded. That’s why I chose to make a planned gift that will direct some funds to the UAB Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences after my time on this sweet earth is done. I want future generations—my children, grandchildren and others—to have access to the best eye care possible. I want them to have what I have experienced firsthand.
The planned gift I made is unrestricted because I want the money to give leadership some wiggle room for things that may not interest other donors. This is my way of saying thank you to this wonderful hospital and department of ophthalmology and to all the people who have been taking care of my eyes in the best way possible.
January 1999 is when I joined the EyeSight Foundation. I retired in September 2021. While I no longer am involved with the department or Callahan professionally, I remain as enthusiastic and as hopeful as when I first began. My hope is that this organization – UAB Ophthalmology and Callahan Eye Hospital and all that they encompass—continues to become a destination for the best eye care around. I want people to think of UAB Callahan when they think of eye disease. I want the UAB faculty, many of whom are my friends, to be synonymous with the prevention and curing of eye diseases. I want young scientists and clinicians to seek out UAB to learn from the best as they look to further their careers. This is already happening, and I hope that one day my planned gift can contribute to the growth and success of this wonderful organization. It is the least I can do for a place that has given so much to me.