BLIND FOR 27 YEARS

Northern Advocate, 23 March 1934, Page 4

BLIND FOR 27 YEARS

CAN NOW SEE. AMAZING EYE OPERATION. FIRST TIME EVER PERFORMED. As the result of an amazing operation carried out in the Royal London {Ophthalmic Hospital, a man, who has {been blind for 27 years, can now see j as well >as any other person, j The man is Mr 11. H. Watson, of |Brinkburn Avenue, Swalwell, near j Newcastle-on-Tync. The operation, -was performed by a famous eye surgeon, Mr J. W. Tudor Thomas, of Cardiff. World’s Specialists. Air Watson returned to his home on January 31 after six months in London, during which time he has been seen -by doctors from nil over the world. They were amazed, he says, at the success of the operation. Last June Air Thomas removed the diseased cornea—the thin skin covering the pupil of the eye —from Mr Watson’s right eye and replaced it with the cornea taken from a man who was -blind from a cause not connected in any respect with the cornea. Both men wore operated uj>on at the same time. In November there was a similar operation on Mr Watson's left eye, the cornea in this ease being substituted by the cornea from a woman's eye. I Air Watson has mot the man and I woman of whose eyes ho has part, but he does not know their names. Only Man Who Could Do It. “Since I had measles when I was four years old I have been almost completely blind,’’ lie said to a reporter, “and doctors said I would never recover my sight. “Then T went to London, and Air! Tliomas came specially to perform the operation. 1 was told that he was the onlv man who could give me back my j Rigid. “T am to return to London soon to J be fitted with glasses, then my sight will lie as good as anybody’s. It seems strange that parts of the eyes of another man and woman should now be parts of my own." At one time Air Watson was a drummer in a band, and played by oar, but lie can now rend music and hopes to take up the profession again.