CORNEA GRAFTED TO RESTORE SIGHT

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25390, 13 January 1948, Page 7

CORNEA GRAFTED TO RESTORE SIGHT

BLIND CHILD’S EYE USED FOR OPERATION (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 pjn.) LONDON, January 12. Barbara Walker, a seven-year-old girl who lost her sight two years ago as a result of an attack of meningitis, volunteered to allow one of her eyes to be removed so that the cornea from it could be grafted into the eye of a blind Royal Air Force pilot, Flying Officer James Wright, D.F.C. The two operations were performed at Queen Victoria Hospital. East Grimstead, by Colonel B. W. Rycroft, who said after completing the grafting operation that he was very satisfied with the result. It will be three weeks before it will be known whether the operation has been successful. The girl’s father, who also served in the Royal Air Force, said the cornea of the child’s eye was still healthy, although the back of the eye had been destroyed by meningitis. Wi|h the child’s consent he had agreed to the operation in the hope that the sight of one of Wright’s eyes might be restored. Wright, who lost his sight by a bombing crash, has undergone nearly 50 grafting operations to his face and other parts of his bo<y.