
ORBIS: The DC-10 Transformed Into A Flying Eye Hospital
A retired DC-10 becomes a fully functioning eye hospital in the cargo hold of this film about ORBIS International's Flying Eye Hospital. Cameras follow the aircraft as it lands in developing countries, where its cabin converts into an operating theater, a laser treatment room, and a classroom for training local doctors and nurses. Surgeons perform cataract removals and other sight-saving procedures on patients who would otherwise have no access to eye care, while medical staff explain how the plane's design lets them bring an entire hospital's worth of equipment to remote regions in a single flight. Interviews with the surgeons, technicians, and local health workers who staff each mission fill in how the program selects communities, trains staff who stay behind after the plane leaves, and coordinates with local hospitals. The film treats the aircraft itself as the story's centerpiece, walking through how a commercial jet's interior was rebuilt bay by bay into sterile medical space, before following the human cases that show what the conversion is actually for.