In 1990, opthamalogist Dr. Susan Senft operated on a 3-year-old Nigerian boy at a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
Last December, Senft, who now practices in Kona, took a phone call from the boy, now grown up and studying petroleum engineering at a university in his home country. At first, Senft didn’t know what to think of the call, but one comment cleared up most of the confusion.
“Doctor, this is Buhari,” Senft recalled Buhari Salisu Buhari saying. “You saved my life.”
That prompted Senft to ask if he had surgery to remove malignant tumors, retinoblastoma, from his eyes. He said yes.
Now 25, Buhari still lives in Nigeria. He told West Hawaii Today by phone Tuesday he just typed Senft’s name into Google and found her contact information. He didn’t remember her — he was too young — but he saw her name on his medical records. When the eyelid covering the prosthetic eye Senft and other doctors gave him in 1990 began bothering him, he first contacted King Khaled Hospital in Saudi Arabia looking for her.
She wasn’t there any longer, and hospital staff told Buhari they didn’t know where to find her. Once he located and contacted Senft, he told her he wanted her to provide the medical care he needed to care for his eyelid.
Senft looked at pictures of Buhari’s eyelid and saw it needed a reconstructive surgery. She contacted Dr. Jorge Camara, an Oahu opthamalogist who is also the past president of the Aloha Medical Mission, which provides free medical and surgical care in Hawaii and Southeast Asia. While she was arranging the surgery, Buhari was raising funds to travel to Hawaii. He arrived last week, first visiting Senft on Hawaii Island, before traveling to Honolulu for Monday’s surgery.
He had nothing but praise for the doctors who performed the surgery and the people he’s met here.
“I really met so many nice people,” he said. “Hawaii people are very nice people.”
Buhari said he was thrilled to meet Senft again, after 22 years.
“I was very excited,” he said. “I was very, very happy. I felt like it was a dream come true.”
Senft also helped him with the visa application process, writing a letter on his behalf to the American embassy in Nigeria.
Camara said the reconstructive surgery is specialized, which is what made it difficult for Buhari to get treatment nearer to home. But it is something Camara has performed multiple times. Eyelids support prosthetic eyes, and if the eyelid begins to have problems, it could become infected, Camara said. The surgery will help prevent that.
Other doctors who helped Buhari include retinal surgeon Dr. Eugene Ng, ocularist Doss Tannehill, who provided services for Buhari’s artificial eye, and Hawaii Advanced Imaging Institute’s Dr. Steven Holmes, who donated an MRI scan.
Senft said she sees her reconnection with Buhari as life coming full circle.
“It’s just nice we could help them,” she said. “It’s kind of an ambassadorship.”
