SIGHT RESTORED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 81, 6 April 1934, Page 9

SIGHT RESTORED

WONDERFUL OPERATION EXCITEMENT OF VISION YOUNG MAN’S IMPRESSIONS. Further details have been obtained of the recovery of sight after 27 years of almost total blindness, by Mr. H. H. Watson, of Newcastle, England. He lost his sight at the age of two as a result of measles. Recently a wonderful operation was performed by Mr. J. W. Tudor Thomas, of Cardiff, at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital. New corneas from the eyes of a blind man and woman were grafted on his eyes to replace the diseased corneas which had caused his own blindness. “The trees, the flowers, the colours —home and my friends —it all seems too good to believe!” ho said. “During my stay in London I saw my first talkie picture, my fiancee, Miss Edith Robson, of Chilton, persuading me to go. It was “King Kong,” and I enjoyed it immensely It did not scorn a bit strange, as I had educated myself by getting my sister to read to mo, and listening to tho wireless. “I used to read a little with a magnifying glass, but my nose used to blacken with the printing ink from the newspapers. Even then 1 could manage to do it for only about three minutes. Now I can read quite well. I am looking forward to going to the seaside, and to trips in the country.” “Our reunion after his first operation was a dramatic event in both our lives,” said Mr. Watson’s mother. “Tears of joy rolled down our cheeks as for the first time he realised what his parents, his sister, and his home really looked like. He said to me, ‘Well, mother, I have never seen your face plainly before.’ Greeting Family Cat. “When he entered tho house his first action was to pick up the family cat, “Tibs,’ and make a great fuss of him. For years Tibs had kept out of my son’s way, as in his infirmity he was unable to see (clearly. He saw was a fence round our garden which before ho only knew by instinct. “The blue curtains in our dining room seemed to fascinate him. He played about with them for some minutes as if to make sure he was not being deceived. In tho garden he was tireless, and yesterday insisted on digging there. While he was doing this he saw me through tho window and shouted, 4 lt seems wonderful tv be free again, and able to see you. I don’t know how I stuck it before.’ “After the first of the two operations he dimly saw with his one eye some Michaelmas daisies, and at once picked a bun»ch and buried his face in them. While in London he went for a day to Brighton to see a sister of mine, and was overcome with the sight of the sea. Ho walked up and down the promenade after most people had gone home.” Mr. Watson spoke too, of his gratitude to the blind man and woman from whose eyos were taken the corneas (the clear membrane in front of the eye), which were of no more use to them, but have enabled him to see. “I walked to tho operating-room with the blind man,” ho said, “and together we went on the operating table. I did not know him, and I have never seen him from that day to this. I met the woman at the operation to my other eye. We only just met, for she was in the operatingroom under ether, and when they had taken tho cornea from her eye and grafted it on mine she had gone.” Engaged to Nurse. “Mr. Watson’s fiancee, Miss Edith Robson, is a pretty young nurse, who nursed him back to health and strength after his operations. “We intend to get married as soon as we can, but by fiance is going to find a job first,” she said. “He wants to get a business in tho north-oast, and then wo shall settle down there. It may be this year.” She revealed that Mr. Watson bad been employed as a musician in London and has also conducted his own orchestra in Newcastle. It was his intention to join an orchestra for the evenings after carrying on the business during the day. Miss Robson took Mr. Watson from the hospital to nurse him at her home in Bayswater, while he was recovering from tho first, operation and waiting for the second, and there at last she watched his eyesight improve day by day. “Before the operation he was perpetually seeing through a London fug. Now the ordinary light of day is bright and dazzling,” she said.