As her cherished face came into focus, and the tears flowed, a blind man in Minnesota saw his wife for the first time in 10 years.
“Yeah!” said Allen Zderad, a 68-year-old granddad, as the countenance of his partner, Carmen, came into view.
Zderad began losing his eyesight 20 years as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease. Ten years in, he was living in darkness.
But earlier this month, with the benefit of a bionic eye installed by the Mayo Clinic, the grandfather of 10 was able to again see his wife of 45 years.
“It’s crude, but it’s significant. It works,” he said, as both he and his wife wept for joy.
Zderad became the 15th person in the country, and the first in his home state, to receive the implanted sight device created by Second Sight, Inc., according to the Mayo Clinic.
The tiny implant works by sending light waves to the optic nerve, bypassing the damaged retina. Wires attach to a prosthetic device that looks like sunglasses and renders a certain amount of imagery.
The vision it produces is not crystal-clear. Zderdad can see shapes and lights and with additional physical therapy, he will be able to find his way around a room and move through a group of people.
Even so, he didn’t have any trouble recognizing Carmen when the lights went on inside his brain.
“It’s easy. She’s the most beautiful one in the room,” he said.
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