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| LOUIS T. BENEZET AWARD RECIPIENT
1995 |
Arthur A. Basham '65
Every year, ophthalmologist Art Basham steps out of the relative comfort
of his private practice in California and into some of the most deprived
regions of the world. since 1987, he and his humanitarian-aid team have
traveled to Southeast Asia to perform eye surgery on those who have been
locked in darkness. He believes that he deals with "the windows of
the soul," and he has the opportunity to open those windows. Art
operates on the poorest, neediest, most medically-deprived people in the
world. His final destination is always rural. His criteria for choosing
patients: they be functionally blind and indigent and their condition
be correctable by surgery.
On one trip to Vietnam, Art operated on 45 patients in the few precious
days he was in the rural village of My Tho. One of the fortunate was a
45 year-old school teacher who had been blinded by cataracts for five
years and was unable to teach or work in any meaningful way. Basham removed
the cataracts. The teacher experienced perfect vision a day later resuming
his status as wage earner for his family. Another patient was a beggar
who returned to the streets to peddle lottery tickets, sight restored.
Basham spends as much time training others as he does treating patients.
He teaches rural Vietnamese and Filipino physicians and nurses the latest
techniques in eye surgery, particularly cataract extractions and intraocular
lens implants.
A 12965 graduate of Colorado College, Art has maintained close ties with
the College in spite of his busy schedule serving as a board member of
the Bay Area Alumni Chapter. He received his M.D. degree from the University
of California, Irvine, did an internship at the University of Colorado
Medical Center, and returned to the University of California to complete
a residency in Ophthalmology at Stanford University Medical Center and
director of the neuro-opthalmology service at the Santa Clara Valley Medical
Center and the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. He has a private practice
in Los Gatos, California.
When one reporter asked Art why he would repeatedly leave family and comfort
to face certain hardships and the unknown while absorbing the drain on
his time and energy, he said, "Because we can do it. Because we have
the opportunity. Because it is a gift for us to use our talents in a way
that really makes a difference. Because what we do in Vietnam and places
like it gets back to the essential reason we went into medicine to begin
with."
Colorado college is proud to honor Art Basham with the Louis T. Benezet
Award for his outstanding contributions to improving life for so many.
Alumni Awards Main Page
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