Be a part of the vision.
Personal Stories.
What difference does a new cornea make? Read the stories of corneal transplant recipients and find out!
The Gift of Sight: Cornea Recipient Steve Tanzer, D.O.
Going from the fear that he was about to lose his
drivers’ license to having clear vision was dramatic for Steve Tanzer, D.O.
That’s what he experienced in 2007, when he underwent two corneal
transplants.
About two years earlier, Dr. Tanzer was in
Dr. Tanzer’s eye disease caused a rapid deterioration
of his vision, and in 2007, he found himself facing cornea transplants.
As a physician, he did his research and found that there were two
types of transplants – traditional and partial-thickness – available for
treating his condition. Dr.
Erdey chose to perform the newer, partial-thickness grafts.
After the first transplant, Dr. Tanzer says, his visual
“clarity was amazing!” His
vision returned rapidly in the first two months after the surgery.
Six months later he had the second transplant, along with a cataract
removal and lens replacement.
Had he not had the transplants, Dr. Tanzer says, “I
wouldn’t be driving or working.”
That was unthinkable for an athletic, young 59-year-old physician
with an active family medicine practice.
Having done what he felt was thorough research, and
having been through cancer surgery, Dr. Tanzer was not prepared for one
aspect of his transplants.
“Being a doctor, I didn’t expect it,” he says, “but the biggest surprise was
the emotional impact” he felt, knowing that someone had to die in order for
him to receive the gift of sight.
“It’s wonderful that people do this,” he said.
“I love the transplant” because he is now able to see, “but I don’t
love it” because the surgery depended on someone else’s loss.
If he could speak to his donors’ families, he says, he would ask
them, “What could I do for you, because this is something I can never
repay?” His profound reaction
to these circumstances was “a revelation for myself,” that he still thinks
about a year after his first transplant.
“The surgery works – it’s wonderful, it’s a blessing!” according to Dr. Tanzer. And it is thanks to an eye donor that he is today a vital part of his community.
Cornea Recipient Shirley Jacobs
“This is a miracle! I can see you, I can see you!” Those were the first words Shirley Jacobs recalls saying to her husband shortly after her corneal transplant in 1991. Looking into her eyes, her husband was amazed by the difference between her new cornea and the other, which was still diseased. He described the latter as “like looking through a dirty bottle.”
Shirley’s very emotional experience was the result of her years of living with Fuchs’ Dystrophy, a degenerative, genetic corneal disease that gradually robbed her of clear vision, independence, and ultimately of her work. A reviewer of budgets and grants for the state, her loss of sight made the job impossible. It was hard to lose the personal interaction of the workplace. In the house alone all day, she felt confined. She remembers with humor how she would follow her husband around the house when he came home in the evenings, wanting to hear everything about his day. He bought her a bird, she says, to get her to stop.
Even once she knew she could have corneal transplants and renewed sight, she felt apprehension. She worried, “about having part of my eye removed, and having a transplant from another person.” This was compounded by her realization that the surgery could only happen if someone died and became an eye donor.
Shirley’s surgeon, Richard Lembach, M.D., put her at ease by explaining that her new cornea would be checked for diseases and would be healthy for transplantation. She made up her mind to go ahead with surgery and then waited four weeks for her donor. Soon after, when the bandage was off, her excitement at the outcome was difficult to contain. “It was a thrill,” she exclaims. She was so animated that her husband had to finally tell her to “be quiet and let me put the drops in your eye!”
Recovery following the transplant was long – a year and a half, according to Shirley. During that period, her surgeon removed stitches only a few at a time. While a transplanted cornea may be clear right away, a difference in its curvature can distort the patient’s new vision. Her physician’s calculated approach to managing the shape of the cornea as it settled in its new home required Shirley’s time and patience.
When Shirley received her first transplant the Central Ohio Lions Eye Bank was in the midst of a public awareness campaign, sending out little stuffed lions with t-shirts bearing the Eye Bank’s logo. Shirley remembers that her doctor presented her with one, and it became a reminder to her, “of what was really important in life – that I could see.” She took the toy to work with her and found that this reminder helped her combat stress.
Shirley still says prayers for her donors and their families. She doesn’t take for granted being given a new chance to see and enjoy “the sun shining, rain, every little bit of nature.” It has been very moving to “realize that I had a part of somebody else. I wanted to honor that.” She decided that she would honor her Gift of Sight by taking piano lessons, and learning to paint water colors. These were activities she had always wanted to take up, but her transplants made her determined to follow through. She also joined the Pickerington Lions Club after her second transplant, thus gaining another avenue “to start giving something back.”
“Every time it’s donor week, I talk to others and mention that it’s not only hearts and kidneys that are needed,” Shirley remarks. Although she found herself teary-eyed the first time she shared her corneal transplant experiences with her own Lions Club, she is eager to visit other Clubs and tell her story.
Shirley says her new sight is “incredible, a tremendous gift. It’s important to remember it, and to be appreciative.” With this clear understanding, when she lost her husband not long ago, “I donated his corneas,” she says. And the Gift of Sight goes on.
"Lucky Guy" Experiences a New Type of Transplant: Bill Harvey
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world!” That’s what Bill Harvey has to say about his opportunity to have a new type of corneal transplant. According to Bill, his surgeon informed him that he was “in exactly the right place at the right time” to benefit from advancing technology. Bill’s enthusiasm is about his two new corneas, both of which were specially prepared by the Central Ohio Lions Eye Bank. The Eye Bank used new equipment that makes it possible for surgeons to perform “partial-thickness” corneal transplants. Not every transplant patient meets the medical criteria to be a candidate for the new procedure. Those who do are fortunate to encounter many advantages. Their transplants require few, if any stitches. They heal more quickly, retain the healthy parts of their own corneas, and have stronger grafts. Best of all, their sight is restored much sooner. In Bill’s case, he knew his vision had diminished because of cataracts, but was surprised to learn that he also suffered from Fuchs’ Dystrophy, a corneal disease that would require a transplant. He was referred to a corneal specialist, Richard Erdey, M.D., after his optometrist told him that adjusting his lens prescription further would not return his sight. “The timing was unbelievable,” Bill says. The doctor told him about the new corneal transplant procedure. “Let’s get her done!” he remembers replying. “Within 60 days I was seeing much better. By 90 days, my vision was 20 -25.” He said it had been many years since he had seen so clearly. When his first transplant was done, the cornea had to be brought in from another state, because the Eye Bank did not yet have the equipment needed to specially prepare it for the surgery. By the second transplant, “the doctor said he had great news” that the Central Ohio Lions Eye Bank now had the equipment, “making his work so much easier!” “Today the sky is a magnificent blue. Red is red, green is green. I can see jets in the sky – before, I could only hear them,” Bill told the Eye Bank. “It’s a brand new world!” He has seven children, 11 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Now, he says, “I can see every one, in every detail!”
Help us achieve our vision.
The Eye Bank relies on community support to help us fund our vision restoration initiatives. Click here to learn how you can help give the Gift of Sight today.
