All of our cornea transplant recipients have amazing stories to tell, and they all culminate in the generosity of people they’ve never met. Here are just a few of these amazing stories. If you have one to share, please click here.

With his vision problems seemingly addressed, Damian attended college in Virginia and then served in the military for 12 years before joining the Wilmington Police Department nearly 20 years ago. As an officer, he alternated between gas permeable contact lenses and prescription eye glasses. After a while, however, he noticed his vision was further deteriorating. Damian soon realized his vision problems were making things unsafe for him and for the people he was sworn to protect. His physician referred him to a cornea transplant surgeon.

Thanks to a Donor, Her Shows Will Go On

It was the dream role of a lifetime! Being cast as Maria in The Sound of Music was Leslie’s most exciting theatrical experience yet–and perhaps her most challenging. While performing to rave reviews, she spent most of her moments backstage flushing her left eye with a steroid solution to ease the blurriness. It was both an amazing and a very scary time for Leslie, who began to seriously wonder whether she was finally going to become blind.

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In the mid 1980’s, my sight was deteriorating, and frequent prescription changes were attempting to keep up with it. Dr. Robert Abel was recommended, and he performed successful implant surgery on both eyes in 1988. This seemed a great improvement, but toward the late 1990’s my vision was deteriorating again. He recommended a cornea transplant on my “good eye,” which took place in April 1998. The sight again improved dramatically, and I sought to find out from whom the cornea came. I learned it was a person about 30 years old from the Cleveland area. I wrote a letter of thanks to the family.

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“My eyesight was worsening, and I wondered how I could work and adequately care for my family," Norm recalled. Finally, in a routine eye exam he learned the seriousness of his situation. He was diagnosed with keratoconus, a deterioration of the structure of the cornea that results in bulging of the cornea and loss of visual acuity. Norm was convinced his life was over.

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When Emily was a little girl, she loved to visit the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, with her family. Her favorite exhibit was the dark and soundless Touch Tunnel, where Emily said it was as though her senses of sight and hearing had been turned off. It was intriguing and scary, she added, and gave her a better understanding of just how much people take for granted the ability to see in particular. It’s a lesson of which she’d be reminded later in her life.

As a very young man, Robert knew he would never have perfect vision. What he did not know was just how much his vision would continue to affect his life.

 My Journey from Perfect Vision to Dual Cornea Transplants

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