David Paton, an idealistic and innovative ophthalmologist who transformed a United Airlines jet into a flying hospital that brought surgeons to developing countries to receive patients and educate local doctors, died April 3 at his home in Reno, Nevada.
His son Tony confirmed his death.
The son of a famous New York eye surgeon whose patients included Shah of Iran and financier J. Pierpont Morgan, Ph.D., who was pronounced Pay-Ton, taught at the Wilmer Ophthalmology Institute at Johns Hopkins University in the early 1970s, when he was discouraged by the growing number of blind cases in the distance from a distance.
“More ophthalmologists are needed,” he wrote in his memoirs. “The Second Attraction: Odyssey’s Perspectives of Ophthalmologists” (2011), “but it is equally important that medical education for existing physicians need to be strengthened.”
But how?
He considered transporting equipment trunks (almost in the circus way), but presented logistical challenges. He pondered the possibility of using medical ships that the Humanitarian Group program hopes to be dispatched around the world. This was too slow for him.
“Short after the first moon landing in 1969, it was thought Big was becoming a reality,” Dr. Parton wrote.
Then, a moon’s idea shocked him: “Can airplanes be the answer? Can airplanes be transformed into operating rooms, teaching classrooms and all necessary facilities.”
He only needs one plane. He asked the military to donate one, but it was a non-life person. He approached several universities to buy some money, but the administrators rejected him, saying the idea was not feasible.
“David is willing to take risks, willing to take risks,” said Bruce Spivey, founding president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, in an interview. “He is charming. He is inspiring. He did not resign.”
Dr. Parton decided to raise funds himself. In 1973, he and Texas oilian Leonard F. McCollum (Leonard F.
In 1980, Mr. Trippe helped convince United Airlines CEO Edward Carlson to donate the DC-8 jet. The U.S. International Development Agency contributed $1.25 million to convert the plane into a hospital with an operating room, a recovery area and a classroom equipped with a TV so local medical staff can watch the surgery.
Surgeons and nurses volunteered to provide services and agreed to spend two to four weeks abroad. The first flight in 1982 was Panama. Then the plane went to Peru, Jordan, Nepal and other regions. Mother Teresa once visited. The same goes for Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
In 1999, the London Sunday Times magazine sent a reporter to Cuba to write about the plane, now known as the “Flying Ophthalmology Hospital”. One of the patients who arrived was a 14-year-old girl named Julia.
“In developed countries, Julia’s condition is nothing more than an irritation,” the Sunday Times said. “It’s almost certain that she has uveitis, an inflammation in her eyes that can be removed with drops. Even cats are easily treated in the UK.”
Her doctor was Edward Holland, an outstanding ophthalmologist.
“The Netherlands used a knife to open the mouth, allowing him to draw the instrument into the eyes, and soon he grabbed Julia’s scar tissue,” the article in the Sunday Times said. “When the tissue was pulled open, the darkness and liquid pupils that were not seen for a decade. It was an intimate and moving moment; it was the chamber music of the drug. Next, he broke down and removed the cataract and implanted the lens to keep the eye in its shape.”
Cuban ophthalmologist watched in the viewing room and applauded.
But after the operation, Julia still couldn’t see it.
“And then start a little miracle,” the article continues. “As the swelling begins to drop, she discovers the world around her. Minutely, she can see something new.”
David Paton was born on August 16, 1930 in Baltimore and grew up in Manhattan. His father, Richard Townley Paton, specialized in corneal transplants and established eye-focused visual repair. His mother, Meserve Paton, is an interior designer.
Dr. Parton described in his memoir “among the fine, keen, extensive travelers of the institution.” His father practiced on Park Avenue. His mother had a party at her home on the Upper East Side.
David attended a boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. There, he met James A. Baker III of Texas, who later became Secretary of State for President George HW Bush. They were Princeton roommates and lifelong best friends.
“David comes from a very privileged background, but he is down to earth and just a very likable person,” Mr. Baker said in an interview. “His goal in life is his goal. His students are much better than me.”
After graduating from Princeton University in 1952, David received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. He held senior positions at the Wilmer Eye Institute and served as chair of the Department of Ophthalmology Science at Baylor College of Huston.
In 1979, he became the medical director of Khalid Ophthalmology Hospital, King Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, while still trying to buy a plane for the Orbis project.
“In my duty, I am providing eye care to many princes and princesses in the kingdom – I was told that there are about 5,000 princes and princesses for each person – and it seems that all insist on being treated by doctors, no matter how small their complaints are.”
Dr. Parton’s marriage to Jane Sterling Treman and Jane Franke ended in a divorce. He married Diane Johnston in 1985. She died in 2022.
In addition to his son, he has two granddaughters.
After a dispute with the board, Dr. Parton left his role as Medical Director of Orbis Program in 1987. That year, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Citizen Medal.
Although his formal ties to the organization have ended, he occasionally serves as an informal consultant.
Now called Orbis International, the organization is its third aircraft, an MD-10 donated by Federal Express.
According to its latest annual report, Orbis conducted more than 621,000 surgeries and procedures from 2014 to 2023 and provided more than 424,000 training sessions for doctors, nurses and other providers.
“This aircraft is a unique place,” said Dr. Hunter Cherwek, vice president of clinical services and technology at the organization. “It’s just an incredibly bold and visionary idea.”
