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Mar 6, 2009 7:00 pm US/Central
Bionic Eye Offers Blind Gift Of Sight
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ―
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Ron was blind for the last three decades. A bionic eye is now helping Ron see again.
CBS
A big breakthrough -- a bionic technology that gives blind people the ability to see. The technology is going to be available in Philadelphia soon, and it's already working for one man in London, CBS station KYW-TV reports.
Ron may be a grandfather, but he's also a bionic man.
"It's really quite amazing," said Ron, whose last name is being kept private.
Ron was blind for the last three decades. A bionic eye is now helping Ron see again.
"For 30 years, I've seen nothing but black, but now light is coming through,' said Ron.
The 73-year-old lost his sight to retinitous pigmentosis, a hereditary disease that damages the retina. Now he's one of 18 patients worldwide testing a new artificial eye.
A tiny video camera mounted on Ron's glasses captures an image. Then as seen in this video from USC Second Sight Medical products, it's sent wirelessly to a tiny receiver on the outside of his eye, which sends the data to an artificial retina implanted in the back of his eye.
Dr. Lyndon Da Cruz, a retinal surgeon at Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London, said, "For it to work, it requires certain things to be there. One is a functioning optic nerve. Two is a normal-sized eye, so we can actually implant it. Three is some residual retina."
For now, Ron still uses his seeing-eye dog, but his wife Tracy has already put his improved vision to good use around the house.
Tracy said, Ron's "doing the washing, being able to tell white from a colored item. I've taught him how to use the washing machine, and away he goes."
Just something as simple as Ron doing the laundry is now a sight to behold.
Testing is in the early stages, but researchers say this could someday lead to an implant with better vision than the human eye.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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