The original
Posted on 06/17/2002 4:25:49 PM PDT by Alan Chapman
NEW YORK (CP) - A Canadian man who lost his sight in an accident nearly 20 years ago is one of a select group of people to have some vision restored by having electronic artificial eyes implanted in their brains.
"You actually have a fifth sense restored. And that is what I absolutely adore about this device," the man, who wished only to be identified by his first name, Jens, said at a conference where early results from the work were revealed. "You are no longer blind. You might be blind to some objects, some situations, but you are not totally blind anymore."
Jens, 39, was the first to get the artificial eye since it became commercially available in April. He was identified as a farmer and father of eight from Kingston, Ont., who lost his vision in a snow machine accident.
While the device does not restore full vision, Jens was able to see clearly enough to drive a car in an empty parking lot to demonstrate the difference the device has made.
"It was really a nice feeling," he said in an interview broadcast on CNN.
The progress being made by Jens and seven other patients was made public Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs in New York by Dr. William Dobelle, the man who invented the device.
"Personally I think it's just a matter of time before electrical stimulators will replace the long cane, Braille and guide dog," Dobelle said. "It will be a gradual process. It could take the rest of the century."
The implantation surgeries took place in Lisbon, Portugal, because the device has not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If the device receives FDA approval, Dobelle intends to establish at clinic at St. Louis University to have the operations done there.
Dr. Kenneth Smith., a professor of neurosurgery at the university who was one of four who performed the surgeries, said the artificial eyes should end blindness for many people.
"It's going to be an answer for thousands of people, I think, that could benefit from this," he said from St. Louis. Smith cautioned, however, that testing on additional volunteers is needed to ensure the system works as well as the team believes it does.
"We're not sure yet but everything we've done so far indicates to us that it is going to be very helpful for some people."
The device doesn't work for all types of blindness. People who were blind from birth, or who lost their vision in childhood are not expected to benefit because their visual cortexes would not have developed fully, Smith said.
But people who had vision, have intact visual cortexes and have memories of what a tree or a building look like are able to recognize them using the artificial eye, he said.
"When I first got this (device), I just looked around," Jens admitted. "Now, I don't want to watch where I'm going. I get distracted and just look at everything.
"This brings me back to the world I used to be in. I think, 'My goodness, how did I ever make it in this darkness?' "
The device has been compared to the one worn by actor LeVar Burton on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Burton's character, blind engineer Lieut. Geordi La Forge, was able to see using a futuristic looking device worn like sunglasses.
Jens and the other patients wear special sunglasses fitted with a miniature TV camera. A microcomputer and stimulator are carried on the waist on a belt or in a bag. The equipment attaches by cable to a tiny fire hydrant-like device implanted in the skull that connects to two electrodes on the surface of the part of the brain that controls sight.
Jens wears his device for an hour a day to get his brain re-adjusted to visual stimuli.
The procedure, hospitalization and equipment cost about $98,000 US.
Patients see white flashes of light in patterns that resemble stars on a black background, like a photographic negative.
"It was like, I would say, throwing back the curtains in the morning when you get up and letting the sun shine in," said Jens. "I would equate it to that feeling."
Four of the eight patients saw brilliantly coloured flashes, Smith said, creating hope that future prostheses may work in full colour.
Although patients are enthusiastic, raising false hopes is a concern.
David Elkin, executive director of the St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired, said the technology sounds interesting. But he fears it "could generate a lot of false hope for people who have never seen."
Smith shares that fear.
"I'm always worried about raising false hopes," Smith said. "I don't want to be overly optimistic. But this looks very promising at the moment."
The sooner government gets out of the way, the sooner innovations like this will be devloped, improved, and made affordable.
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Added some keywords also!
While the device does not restore full vision, Jens was able to see clearly enough to drive a car in an empty parking lot to demonstrate the difference the device has made.
Well, he's ready to drive in Seattle, all right. But then he was before, too...
The original
Seattle LOL! NO kidding.
Seriously- this is an exciting breakthrough. My daughter almost lost an eye in an accident last year and is now blind in that eye. We pray for advances like this in the opthamology field.
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