This past summer cornea transplant patient Kevin Craig recalled his love of baseball when the The Central Ohio Lions Eye Bank invited him to throw out the first pitch at the Annual Eye Bank Night at the Clippers game. He used to teach T-ball to six- and seven-year-olds, back when the idea was to enjoy the game and before scores were kept and it turned into a competition, he says. He remembers seeing the Clippers play in the old west side ballpark, but never expected to find himself on the pitcher’s mound at Huntington Park. Corneal transplants can certainly open up new opportunities.
As Mr. Craig explains it, he “never knew what sight was until I had my surgeries.” A victim of both cataracts and the cornea-distorting disease keratoconus, he was astonished to realize that he “never knew how vivid colors were” until those conditions were treated by his surgeon, Dr. Richard Erdey of Columbus.
A member of the National Guard for 35 years, Mr. Craig, who retired last November, now works in defense logistics running a program for new employee orientation. He and his wife have a 28-year-old daughter and a two-year-old granddaughter. His new vision, he says, has opened “a whole new world.” It’s the “best eye sight I’ve had in my whole life.”
