When I retired, I looked for ways to continue using my medical abilities in any way I could. An opportunity to do just that came to Cook through the Lalmba Association, a private organization which provides health education and community development programs and operates medical clinics in East Africa. Cook has made several trips to the Sudan, where he would live for six weeks in an area near the Ethiopian border. While there, Cook performed ophthalmological surgery and taught native workers basic surgical procedures for certain ophthalmological problems. Medical facilities and personnel are virtually unheard of in that area of the world, and Cook says that people would travel extreme distances when they heard doctors were in the region.
Cataracts are very prevalent in Sudan, and strike the people there at a very early age.
The first surgeon to use eye implants in Sudan, Cook says some of the Sudanese people were awestruck that their sight could be restored in 24 hours by using the implants. Sudanese natives were taught to recognize the conditions of glaucoma, as well as procedures that would help care for the population's eye problems when physicians were not available. I was a part of bringing hope to people who really didn't have any. I'd like to go back as soon as I am able. At home in Rockford, Cook is still involved in the medical community.