SIGHT RESTORED

Southland Times, Issue 22378, 18 July 1934, Page 9

SIGHT RESTORED

OTHER HUMAN EYES USED. BLIND FOR 35 YEARS. Two patients at a London eye hospital, by reason of disability which necessitated the removal of an eye in each case, have been able to restore sight to a woman who had been blind for 35 years. The delicate operations were performed at the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital by Mr Tudor Thomas, a Cardiff eye specialist who was formerly attached to the hospital. The two patients do not know of the extraordinary service they have given. This remarkable story was told last month by Mr George Watts, the secretary of the hospital. Minute membranes, five millimetres in size,, were sewn with hair-like gut to the sightless eyes. . Two operations were performed—in November last year and January this year—but it was only six weeks ago that the operations could be declared successful. For months the woman’s eyes were heavily bandaged, and now she is being taught to see. “The training, said Mr Watts, “consists in part of blackboard drawings. For instance, a ship is drawn and the patient is asked to add the funnel. “It is hard to conceive how difficult the training is,” continued Mr Watts. “Shown a printed card, the, patient still endeavours to trace or ‘feel out the various letters as she would in Braille.” There are no other records of sight being restored after so long a period as 35 years. , The woman, who has been blind since the age of two weeks, came from abroad. She is a Braille system expert, and has given great service to the blind in many countries.