DOCTORS RESTORE TWO BLIND PATIENTS’ SIGHT
SCIENTISTS have found a cure for the most common form of blindness – after two patients were given back their sight.
Douglas Waters, 86, and a woman in her 60s suffered a rapid loss of vision after being struck down with age-related macular degeneration.
AMD is the most common form of sight loss in the UK – affecting more than 600,000 people – and had previously been thought irreversible.
But in a world first, surgeons gave Mr Waters and the woman a stemcall patch under the retina in an operation lasting less than two hours.
Experts are hoping the procedure will become as common as cataract surgery, bringing an end to the misery of sight loss in old age. Mr Waters went from not being able to read at all, even with glasses, to reading 60 to 80 words a minute with normal glasses.
The pensioner of Croydon, South London said: “In the months before the operation, my sight was really poor. I couldn’t see anything out of my right eye. I was struggling to see clearly, even up close. “After the surgery, my eyesight improved to the point where I can now read the paper and help with the Douglas Waters gardening. It’s brilliant what the team have done and I feel so lucky to have been given my sight back.”
Prof Lyndon Da Cruz, of Moorfields Eye Hospital in Central London, said: “The patients who received the treatment had very severe AMD.
“Their improved vision will go some way to enhance their quality of life.” Prof Pete Coffey, of UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Central London, added: “This represents real progress.
“It opens the door to treatment options for people with age-related macular degeneration.”