"Oh, Sarah!" Jean exclaimed when I picked up the phone. "I just know you're going to be seeing in no time!"
I stood beside the kitchen counter, unsure of what to say. I was tired of hearing about the retinal microchip implants--they wouldn't be available for years, and they were unlikely to benefit people with my eye condition.
Little did I know that the retinal microchip news was just the beginning. Now the fanfare has spread to include the promise of a device which can be implanted on the brain and receives signals from a tiny computer mounted on a pair of glasses. The latest addition to the cure for blindness parade is stem cells. Having had plenty of surgeries already to preserve and restore partial vision, I take the promise of a cure with a few grains of salt. However, I also hope somewhere inside myself that one day one of these promises will become something more than speculation.
There are many reasons for my caution in absorbing this news. Still, they are not enough to keep me from investigating--and they should not be enough to keep others from investigating. To that end, I drop my guard and make what I hope will be a successful attempt to provide some accurate information for those who are curious about these promised miracles.
The first step to ensuring that these stories are interpreted accurately is to maintain a certain level of emotional distance. All three of these projects are still in the very early experimental stages. Even though some humans have received implants and transplants, no long-term studies have been done regarding the effects on people with various eye conditions or previous levels of visual experience. Furthermore, sight restoration to people who have been congenitally blind presents some serious ethical dilemmas; for a person cannot wake up seeing and immediately know how to use the information coming from the eyes.
A second point to consider when evaluating information about research is the fact that all procedures do not provide treatment for the same condition. Having an understanding of your eye condition is crucial in order to know whether a given procedure may benefit you. A detached retina, for example, means that the pathway from the retina to the optic nerve, which transmits images to the brain, is severed. Even with a successful retinal implant, the retina would need to be successfully reattached in order for the person to receive benefit from the procedure. Furthermore, retinal reattachments must be done within a certain time frame in order for a successful reattachment to provide visual benefit. Many reattachments are anatomically successful but do not provide substantial visual benefit.
A third point to remember is that sight restoration is a very new concept. Regaining even a small amount of vision requires a great deal of physical and emotional adjustment. Assistance with this adjustment is not always readily available--it is not every day that someone walks into a rehabilitation agency looking for help because she is no longer blind! Blind people have mixed feelings about whether or not they would want sight restored (or provided in the first place if they have never had it). Many are more concerned with being enabled to live a full life in spite of blindness. After all, they have spent many years learning how to perform daily tasks without the use of vision. The true barriers to fulfilling their dreams, they feel, are those attitudinal barriers which prevent others from accepting them as capable participants in employment and community activities.
This document is copyright 2003 by Sarah J. Blake. For permission to reprint, please email Sarah at sarah@growingstrong.org.
Sarah J. Blake is a person with a visual impairment who has also studied blindness and eye conditions. She is not an eye care professional, and information on this site is not a substitute for face-to-face consultation with an eye care professional. This site is designed solely to assist patients and doctors in building cooperative relationships.
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