The rest of the operations were a mixed picture — some typical and others difficult, including those on several other young patients. One girl, Jamba, 13, had an extra layer of scar tissue behind her lens that Dr. Teshome had never seen before.

The morning after surgery, patients lined up on long benches in the hospital’s huge waiting room, to have their eyes examined and vision tested. Some knew instantly that their sight had been restored. Isatu, the girl Aminata had comforted, was one of those. Her father, still at home but reached by cellphone, wept at the news that she could see again.

Aminata, Jamba and a few others seemed less fortunate. Their vision had not improved: They still could see only hand motion. If Aminata felt disappointed, she did not show it: Lithe and animated, she seemed ready to do pull-ups on the equipment being used to examine her eye. The exam showed inflammation, and possible scarring on the retina. The doctors prescribed drops and steroid pills to quell the inflammation.

A month later, Dr. Teshome performed a laser procedure that markedly improved Aminata’s vision. It’s still not 20/20, but she can see well enough to catch a ball, read with glasses, tell a spoon from a fork. Time will tell whether she improves further.

For Aminata and thousands of others in West Africa, the full toll taken by Ebola still has not been tallied.