MAKING AN EYE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2665, 3 September 1937, Page 5

MAKING AN EYE

PLASTIC SURGEON’S TASK OPERATION ON LITTLE GIRL. Born with only one eye and with only a few traces of eyelash where the other eyelids should have been, a three-year-old girl will soon undergo an operation at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital to equip her with an artificial' eye, says the New York Times. With the object of eventually appearing as normal as possible, the child already has had two operations there. It is considered a rather unusual case, although many plastic surgery reconstructions of eye sockets; have been carried out with varying degrees of success.

Eighteen months ago the same surgeon who will do the next operation broke the “seal” of the closed eyelids. In his second operation, about a year ago, he transplanted some mucous membrane from inside the little girl’s cheek to the unlined socket to make a “pocket” to hold the new eye. He also constructed upper and lower eyelids out of the skin where the regular eyelids should have been. The third operation will include grafting another tissue flap from some other part of the child’s body to improve the lids and deepen the eyeball “pocket.” Eyelashes will be made probably from the girl’s eyebrows. The actual insertion of the artificial eye will not take place for some time after the operation, to give the tissues a chance to heal.