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Blind No More: Restoring Sight / Vision

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http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=14542618&method=full&siteid=89488&headline=my-eye-tooth-name_page.html

MY EYE TOOTH
Small bit of molar has let me see grandkids for first time
Aug 18 2004

By Judith Duffy



A WOMAN who was blind for nearly 30 years has seen her grandchildren for the first time after surgeons restored her sight using a tooth.

Judith Smith was left blind after suffering a rare reaction to epilepsy medication at 15.

But the 42-year-old can now see through a tiny hole in her right eyelid after a piece of her tooth was used to create a new 'eye'.

After the op, she was delighted to see her four grandchildren, including little Brooklyn, who was just days old when she had the first part of the surgery.

She said: 'I had forgotten how beautiful the world can be. The most wonderful thing has been to be able to see my family and grandchildren.

'Before the operation, I could just see light and dark, now I can see light, shades, colours, shapes - almost everything.

'I met my grandchild, Bryoni, in town and I saw her hair for the first time.

'She came running up to me shouting, 'Nanna, Nanna.' And I could see what she was wearing and her very, very blonde hair.' Judith, of Redcar, Teesside, had the operation last week at Brighton's Sussex Eye Hospital. It was performed by renowned surgeon Christopher Liu.

The first stage, which had been carried out in advance, involved removing a tooth and carving it into a disc.

This was implanted in her cheek, to allow it to grow tissue, which was used to stitch it into place in the eye socket.

The patient's damaged cornea was then replaced by the tooth disc. Following the seven-and-ahalf hour operation, her eyelids were permanently sealed to prevent infection.

Judith, who lives with partner Tom Ellison, said: 'I couldn't believe it when they told me what they were planning to do.

'They put a hole in the eyelid and I see through that. The operation means my eye now works like a pinhole camera.'

Although Mr Liu warned her not to expect miracles, Judith is delighted with the operation.

She said: 'I panicked when I came round, because everything was completely black.

'But when they took the padding off, I could see a cotton bud going across the optic.

'I started to cry. The doctor thought he was hurting me, but it was because I could see it.

'They asked me to read the first letter on the optician's chart - it was an 'O'. I hadn't been able to do that in 27 years. I wanted to dance about.

'I wanted to scream and shout to the world to tell everyone it had worked - I could see again.

'My body could still reject it but I am hopeful.'

And the delighted gran is planning to make the most of her newly restored sight.

She said: 'I've got three aims - to learn to drive in a Bentley, to do a parachute jump and get on the computer to educate myself.'

HOW DOCS RESTORED JUDITH'S SIGHT AFTER 27 YEARS

FIRST STAGE: A tooth and part of Judith's jawbone are removed in a preparatory operation

STAGE TWO: Scarred corneal tissue is removed and skin from her cheek is grafted over Judith's eye

ALMOST THERE: The optical cylinder is fitted into the disc cut from the tooth and inserted under eye socket

SEE IT THROUGH: Soft tissue forms on tooth, which creates lens and iris. Eyelids are sealed to prevent infection
Click to expand...
 
Blind woman regains sight after heart attack

By ROBIN YAPP and ANDY DOLAN, Daily Mail 08:37am 20th January 2006


A woman who was blind for a quarter of a century has baffled doctors by regaining her sight after suffering a heart attack.

Great-grandmother Joyce Urch, 74, awoke from a coma to find her vision restored.

Doctors are describing it as a 'miracle' because they can find no medical explanation for the phenomenon.

Mrs Urch, from Coventry, lost her sight in 1979, apparently because of glaucoma. After more than 25 years, she was admitted to the city's Walsgrave Hospital with chest pains.

A few days later, she suffered a cardiac arrest and was not expected to live. But she recovered - and left doctors and her 77-year-old husband Eric astounded when she shouted: "I can see, I can see, I can see."

Mrs Urch said: "Eric came over and I said, "Oh, you've got wrinkles on your face. You must be old.

"And I said, "Well, I must be old as well then."

The last time the mother of five from Coventry could see, Margaret Thatcher had just been elected Prime Minister and Nottingham Forest were European football champions.

Now she says that every time she looks out at her garden she cannot believe her luck.

'Is that really me?'

"I love going out now. I can look around and see the trees and squirrels and pigeons. The first time you look in the mirror you look at yourself and think, "Is that really me? I never used to be like that."

"A lot of things, such as shops, have changed. Coventry has changed. There are roads everywhere where they weren't before."

Mrs Urch has seen her three great-grandchildren for the first time and last weekend celebrated her golden wedding anniversary.

Her husband, a former miner, said: "I didn't believe it at first, she was still alive for one thing and all I could think was, well, somebody up there must love Joyce.

"When she said she could see me, I said, "What colour pullover am I wearing?" She said "grey". And she was right. It must be some sort of a miracle because I never thought Joyce would ever see again."

Mrs Urch went blind after she was diagnosed with glaucoma - a complex group of disorders which involve damage to the optic nerve and can lead to permanent blindness. She is also arthritic and diabetic.

Dr Martin Been, her consultant cardiologist, said he could not explain her sight returning. Asked whether it was a miracle, he said: "It seems so. I am baffled."

Ian Murdoch, a consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, said the blindness might have been caused not by the glaucoma but by cataracts - where the lens of the eye becomes cloudy.

"The heart attack itself or the treatment she received as a result could have put pressure on her eyes, causing the cataract to drop away to the back.

"But if this was the case, I would expect Mrs Urch only to have regained unfocused sight, such as being able to perceive between light and dark."
Click to expand...

Source

The mysteries of restored vision

By Celia Hall Medical Editor
(Filed: 20/01/2006)

The unexpected restoration of Joyce Urch's eyesight following a heart attack remains a mystery to her doctors.

By her own account she suffered from glaucoma, a condition in which abnormal pressure in the eye damages the optic nerve. But she also said there was a family history of blindness and, despite many tests, there had been no firm explanation for her loss of sight.

Specialists said yesterday that a reversal of glaucoma was not likely since the damage caused was irreversible.

"The only rational explanation would be that very dense cataracts dislodged spontaneously, but that is a bit outlandish," said Kerry Jordon, consultant ophthalmologist and a member of council of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. There were, he said, only anecdotal accounts of "psychological blindness" and of sight regained following trauma.

In 2000 there were reports of a 76-year-old man, also from Coventry, regaining vision after being blind for 12 years. One day, in his armchair, he realised that he could see colours and his sight returned. Again there was no medical explanation.

Four years ago a young woman from New Zealand, blind for 10 years, banged her head on a table as she stooped to kiss her guide dog. The next day she could see.

Guide dogs and "short sharp shocks" feature in several anecdotes. Tripping over guide dogs and being injured were cited in reports of restored sight in 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1988.

Another story, possibly an urban myth, relates to a blind Indian who, in 1985, hit his head against a door and regained his sight, but lost his hearing at the same time.

------------
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.
Click to expand...

Source
 
The BF's father had a head injury and lost some of the sight in one eye. It was put down to a partially detached retina. About a year later, he banged his head again (on the same cupboard door at home!) and the sight came back, almost completely.
 
Here's another 'Long time coming' story....

Blitz survivor has sight restored
By Eleanor Bradford
BBC Scotland health correspondent

A man who was blinded in one eye during the Blitz has had his sight restored by Scottish specialists, 66 years later.

John Gray, 87, was badly injured during the Luftwaffe's bombing raid on Clydeside and was told he would never again see through his right eye.

However, when he started to go blind in his left eye too, specialists decided to see if there was anything they could do about the wartime wound.

An eye surgeon at Glasgow's Southern General replaced the scarred lens.

Mr Gray can now see through the eye he has not used in six decades and is sufficiently sighted to sit a driving test.

Drop landmines

In 1941, he was on duty as a firewatcher when the air raid sirens sounded.

As the night drew on he watched as the German Luftwaffe flew overhead on their way to drop thousands of tonnes of explosives on Clydeside.

It was to be the most devastating bombing raid the Germans were to carry out in Glasgow. And it was the last thing John remembered for several days.

The Luftwaffe's two-day raid claimed 1,200 lives. John was nearly one of them.

Part the German strategy was to drop landmines in order to stop the emergency services getting to the scene of destruction. One of them landed right on top of the cold store John was in.

Eight hours later he was pulled from the rubble suffering from terrible injuries - the only survivor from that building.

He recalled: "We just heard some glass shattering and that was the last thing I heard until I came to in the Victoria Infirmary with my leg stretched out in plaster and a big bandage on my head.

"I had an injury to my head which took the sight away from my right eye."

Doctors told him he'd never see through that eye again. But John was stoical - after all, he had another eye.

As the years went by a friend's son, Frank Munro, qualified as an optometrist and began to see John for check-ups.

Healthy eye

As optometry became more advanced, Frank was able to take a look at John's old war wound. He realised that John's retina was healthy - all the damage was to the lens.

But it was too risky to attempt an operation - the part of John's brain that 'sees' through that eye hadn't been used for decades and might have become redundant. Frank told John it would be better to keep that eye as a 'spare' - hopefully he'd never need to use it.

Then, in 2007, a 'spare' eye was exactly what John needed. He developed a severe form of Macular Degeneration in his remaining healthy left eye.

There was little specialists could do and Frank had to break the news to him that he would gradually lose sight in his left eye until he was totally blind.

Frank decided to seek the help of a specialist to see if there was anything they could do to restore the sight that had been taken away during the Blitz.

The Southern General Hospital's eye surgeon Dr Ian Bryce removed John's scar tissue and inserted a new artificial lens - something not possible 60 years ago. But the question remained - would John's brain remember how to see through his right eye?

It took a few weeks for John's brain to adjust but to everyone's relief John began to see again. At first it was blurred but now John's vision is good enough to read small print.

Frank has just issued John with his first set of bifocal spectacles with a lens in both the left and the right eye, and the 87-year-old is delighted. He says both his optometrist and his surgeon deserve a knighthood.

"I couldn't be more pleased," he declared. "I've got vision and I can read to a certain extent". :D

Frank Munro and Dr Bryce are happy to have helped, and say this is lesson to other people.

They say it is always worth getting regular eye check-ups, and if your sight gets worse don't suffer in silence - there's usually something that can be done.

Although they admit it's not every day that they can restore sight to an eye that hasn't been used since 1941.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/gla ... 333239.stm
 
The Southern General Hospital's eye surgeon Dr Ian Bryce removed John's scar tissue and inserted a new artificial lens - something not possible 60 years ago. But the question remained - would John's brain remember how to see through his right eye?
Click to expand...

Wonderful story, however I'm sure that artificial lenses were available then. in fact I seem to recall a story in FT about pseudo-aphakic people (people who have artificial lenses) being used during the war as they had better night vision or something.

I'm off to research.
 
In the 1940s Harold Ridley introduced the concept of implantation of the intraocular lens which permitted more efficient and comfortable visual rehabilitation possible after cataract surgery. The implantation of foldable intraocular lens is the procedure considered the state-of-the-art.
Click to expand...

IIRC although it was possible then it was not common.
 
Pensioner ditches jam jar specs after stroke gives him 20/20 vision
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:58 PM on 02nd September 2009

A 'blind as a bat' pensioner has told of his gratitude for the massive stroke that left him with perfect vision.
Retired architect Malcolm Darby, 70, had worn thick glasses since the age of two after a bout of measles caused inflammation of his optic nerves and almost completely blinded him.
But decades later he was stunned to come round after a lifesaving operation to remove a blood clot in his neck and find that he could see clearly for the first time in his life.

Mr Darby suffered the stroke on May 13 last year when he was at home in Oakham, Leicestershire.
He managed to tell his wife Sylvia, 68, to dial 999 before he collapsed and was taken to Kettering General Hospital for surgery. A team of five surgeons worked for two hours to remove the clot that was blocking 80 per cent of his right carotid artery.

Mr Darby presumed his vision was worse in the Intensive Care Unit when his glasses made everything look blurry.
He said: 'I was still a bit fuzzy from the surgery but reached for my glasses and put them on and I couldn't see a thing.
'I thought, 'oh no' I'm going to have to spend more money on new glasses.
'Then when I took them off I noticed a nurse carrying a newspaper upside down and I could read what it said. It didn't register at first and then suddenly I realised I could see. :D
'The stroke meant I couldn't speak so I was pointing at things on the ward and shouting gibberish at people. I wanted to tell people I could see.
'Eventually a nurse gave me some paper and a pen and I wrote down that my sight was back.'

Doctors are unsure why Mr Darby's vision has been restored, but one theory is that the operation eased swelling on the nerves damaged by the measles.
The grandfather-of-four now has better sight than most 20-year-olds.
However he has lost his aptitude for mental arithmetic and can no longer speak French fluently.
'It's a small price to pay to have perfect vision,' he said.
'It's absolutely amazing. I think what has happened is a miracle.
'Odd as it may sound, having a stroke was the best thing that happened to me.'

Wife Sylvia said: 'It's amazing. He can read things I need glasses for. He only uses his reading glasses for very tiny print.
'After 50 years of marriage and seeing him wearing glasses every day, it's strange to see him without them.'

Dr Martin Fotherby, consultant stroke physician at Leicester Stroke Centre, said: 'It's pretty unusual. It's a mystery.
'I don't know why vision should improve after a stroke. I've never heard of it. A stroke may cause double vision, but generally it will cause loss of part of vision.'

But Joanne Murphy, of the Stroke Association, said: 'We do hear about survivors who have developed new skills after their stroke.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... z0Q2BFSKL4
 
I remember a fascinating documentary in which a middle aged guy who had been blind since infancy had his sight restored surgically. After a while he gave up and started walking around with his eyes closed - his brain had never learned to interpret the signals from few eyes, so it was so much meaningless lights and colours.
 
This almost certainly isnt the right threat but i had a look for a suitable medical thread and couldnt find one, so if a kindly mod can find a more suitable thread it would be appreciated.

Algae proteins have been used to partially restore a mans sight.

"The vision of a completely blind man has been partially restored using light-sensing proteins first found in algae.

The man was treated with a type of therapy called optogenetics, which uses the proteins to control cells at the back of his eye.

He first knew it was working when he realised he could see the painted stripes of a pedestrian crossing.

He can now grab and count objects on a table, Nature Medicine reports."

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57226572
 
I've always been prepared to volunteer if someone comes up with an artificial eye. Perfectly good empty eye socket they could use, optic nerve still functioning (because I get an occasional burst of white sparks off it)
 
Kondoru said:
Yes, why isnt there one? Eyes are simple devices.

Lack of research?
Click to expand...
Eyes are not simple. It's the retina that is the real issue.
Interfacing an electronic system to an optic nerve used to be a major conundrum, but somebody very smart worked out how to do it.
An artificial eye is very possible, because of this. However... the resolution of a natural eye is many, many times greater than any digital camera that has been built. The first electronic eye replacements will probably be a bit pixellated.
 
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