Little Margarette – A Valentine Story

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Written by Wang Foundation for sight restoration

(Nashville, TN, 2/14/09) On this Valentine’s Day, we present a touching story of Margarette, a Haitian orphan girl who nearly died from malnutrition and is now going blind, a precious child who was brought to America (specifically Nashville, TN) by a Nashvillian missionary and his team, as well as the help of a US Senator, a kind-hearted dentist and an eye doctor.

One Sunday morning, a woman who very clearly needed help showed up at a church in Haiti. In her arms she held her dying daughter, Margarette, who was 7-years-old but had the appearance of a 3-year-old. Margarette's hair was falling out and she had temporarily lost her eyesight because of undernourishment. Her body was weak, and her eyes were swollen shut. When the missionaries saw her, it was as if they were staring death in the face.

Margarette’s story began in Ouanaminthe, Haiti where Danita Estrella and her organization called Danita's Children, Hope for Haiti own property used for these needy children.  Margarette is only one of 75 orphans who would probably be dead now if it wasn’t for the kindness and generosity of many caring individuals who have supported Danita and her long-term missionaries. One of these selfless individuals is Nashville native Karris Hudson, who graduated from Christ Presbyterian Academy located right here in Nashville.  Karris has spent the last seven of her twenty-eight years caring for Haiti’s sick and dying children. She is referred to as "Mommi Karris” as a term of endearment used by the Haitians, and it is she who brings the Nashville connection. 

Continuing on with Margarette's story…  When she arrived at the church that day, the team immediately had Margarette admitted to a local hospital where she was given a blood transfusion and critical care to keep her alive. Margarette’s life was hanging by a thread.

One day, Margarette looked up at the missionaries and said, “Thank you for not letting me die.” Through the diligent care of the missionaries in Haiti, life slowly returned to little Margarette’s body. However, they noticed that she was beginning to show signs of rapidly deteriorating eyesight! They learned that the severe malnutrition she had suffered had left her permanently blind in the left eye with vision in the right eye swiftly weakening as well.  In October of 2008, the missionaries mentioned Margarette’s plight to Dr. David Snodgrass, a Nashville pediatric dentist who had met Margarette while leading a dental mission team to Haiti. Because of their loving care, today Margarette is a bright, smiling little girl with hope for a bright future. 

When the dental team returned to Nashville, Dr. Snodgrass contacted Dr. Ming Wang, Nashville’s world-renowned ophthalmic surgeon, and asked for help.  Dr. Wang immediately offered his assistance and mentioned that the Wang Foundation may be able to cover some of the costs if Margarette could be treated surgically. From the photograph that Dr. Snodgrass provided, Dr. Wang was able to make a preliminary assessment of Margarette’s eye condition, and felt that corneal scarring may be the main cause of her blindness. The rudimentary medical facility in Haiti would not provide an adequate setting for the type of advanced and complex eye reconstructive surgery that Margarette’s eyes would require, so the only hope she might have to stop the deterioration of her vision and salvage her sight would be to make the trip to Nashville, TN, and pray that she could be helped by the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, a 501c(3) charity in which Dr. Wang performs all sight restoration surgeries, as well as pre- and post-op care for these blind patients, free of charge. 

With the help of U.S. Senator Bob Corker’s office, an emergency medical visa for “Little Margarette” was obtained in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and this past Saturday, she and "Mommi" Karris arrived in Nashville.

On Monday, 2/9/09 at 1:30pm, little Margarette came to see Dr. Wang, thus beginning a new chapter in her life where she embarked upon her courageous journey from darkness to light. Dr. Wang examined Margarette and found that her left eye was completely damaged and had no chance of visual recovery whatsoever. The only hope was in treating the right eye. Dr. Wang determined that this eye was severely damaged as well, and all conventional surgeries wouldn’t be able to help Margarette to see again. Fortunately, through a 2-hour careful examination and measurement of the right eye, Dr. Wang determined that a new laser eye reconstructive surgery--that he helped to develop--may indeed work and could possibly give Margarette the chance of a lifetime… to fulfill her dream to see again! But time is of essence, since Margarette’s brain and visual cortex development is complete as of age 10, so any further delay of sight restoration may mean that a portion of her sight loss will be permanent and irreversible.

On Tuesday, 2/10/09 at 12:30pm, at the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, Dr. Wang performed the innovative laser sight restoration surgery for Margarette free of charge.  “With God’s blessing, the surgery went well”, beamed Dr. Wang after the surgery was done. “God held Margarette during the most critical 48 seconds of the surgery so that we were able to complete it successfully!” So, for 48 seconds God took good care of this little Haitian orphan, who has struggled for life and sight for most of the 10 years she has been alive.

According to Dr. Wang, the laser eye surgery went exactly according to the plan. Dr. Wang was able to use the advanced excimer laser, which has a quarter micron resolution per laser pulse, to remove the scarring in Margarette’s visual axis and create a clear visual pathway for Margarette. This procedure allowed visual images to enter Margarette’s eye for the first time….and for the first time, Margarette saw clearly the images of everyone in the operating room--Melody, Karris and Dr. Wang. “I’m sure God is smiling down on Margarette from up in heaven”, said Dr. Wang, “and He is so pleased that this courageous 10-year-old Haitian orphan, who has overcome great odds in her life, has survived a near-death experience from starvation and malnutrition, and has made the long trip from Haiti to the US to seek sight and the hope for a new life…..”

On Wednesday, 2/11/09, Dr. Wang found that Margarette’s vision has improved dramatically from the pre-operative 5%, to now 30%! On Friday, 2/13/09, Dr. Wang removed Margarett’s bandage contacts and found that Margarett’s vision has indeed improved to 80%! Margarette began to read books!

So, today, on Valentine’s Day, our little Margarette, our precious Valentine’s Day girl, now sees, for the first time, and for her first Valentine’s Day here in the US!

For information: Dr. David Snodgrass (615-370-0801, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), Dr. Ming Wang (615-321-8881, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).

About Dr. Ming Wang: Ming Wang, MD, PhD is the founding president of our state’s first Chinese chamber of commerce, the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a Harvard and MIT graduate (MD, magna cum laude), and an internationally renowned LASIK eye surgeon. Tennessee is currently ranked #1 in the US in the growth rate of export to China. The mission of the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce is to help our state continue its growth in export to China. Dr. Wang is a co-owner and medical director of the largest private eye hospital group in China today (which holds 10% of China’s eye care market), with most of its medical instruments imported from the US. As an eye surgeon, Dr. Wang has performed over 25,000 LASIK procedures (including on over 3,000 doctors) and is one of the designated LASIK surgeons for ABC’s national hit reality TV show “Extreme Makeover”. During the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1970s, a teenage Ming played a Chinese musical instrument called the er-hu in an effort to escape being deported to a remote part of the country where he would be condemned to a life of poverty and hard labor, a devastating fate that fell upon 20 million youth in China. Dr. Wang has come a long way from the penniless young man he was when he arrived in the US in 1982, and is now one of the few LASIK surgeons in the world who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. He published a paper in the world renowned journal Nature, holds several US patents for his inventions of new biotechnologies to restore sight, and performed the world’s first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation. Dr. Wang established the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, a 501c(3) charity foundation which has helped blind patients from over 40 states in the US and over 55 countries worldwide, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free of charge.

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