Blind Orangutan Receives Life Changing Surgery To Recover Eyesight

An orangutan who was shot 104 times by an air rifle and was blinded has undergone surgery in order to restore her sight. The ape name Aan had to have her left eye removed after it was ruptured in a cruel attack on a Bornean oil plantation back in 2012. Aan was showered with pellets and vets were able to remove most of them though 37 were left in her head effectively leaving her blind. A British vet has undertaken the task of restoring her sight by performing surgery on her right eye.

Prognosis positive

Claudia Hartley a veterinarian ophthalmologist performed the surgery which lasted three hours said the procedure could not have gone any better and the prognosis was very promising. Dr Hartley said the surgery went well which has pleased her and her team, though Aan still needs to be assessed when she is behaving slightly more normally. Immediately following her surgery, she was still quite sleepy which meant her right eye remained shut so it wasn’t not possible to tell how much she is able to she

“If we shone a bright light in she would then scrunch her eye up, so I’m pretty sure she can recognise the light. But we can’t assess how well she sees food and trees and obstacles and those sort of things, which is the more critical thing that we need to do.”

Surgery was made possible by generous donors

Dr Hartley volunteered to travel to Borneo with her team to perform the surgery. She plans to continue monitoring Aan in her enclosure. The Orangutan Foundation launched an appeal to pay for the surgery. Ashley Leiman director of the foundation said it would be fantastic if Aan was able to be released. This is because as a blind ape she would have had to spend the rest of her life in a cage. Aan has been described as a clever primate and will now live in an enclosure in a sanctuary for just a few weeks to make sure that she continues to receive her post-op medication. After her recovery, she will be released back into the wild.