Bionic Mum can see again after 6 years

A British woman has told of the ‘pure joy’ she felt after a revolutionary bionic eye allowed her to see for the first time in six years.

Rhian Lewis, 49, said it ‘felt like Christmas Day’ when she was able to read a clock again and could see a car in the street.

The mother of two – who began losing her sight when she was just five years old – can also identify everyday objects such as cutlery once more, as well as enjoy simple pleasures such as seeing the sun shine.

‘It’s pure elation,’ she said.

Miss Lewis, from Cardiff, is the first Briton – and the first person outside Germany – to be fitted with the world’s most advanced ‘bionic eye’.

Actually an aspirin-sized microchip, the implant has been fitted in Miss Lewis’s right eye – which lost all sight 16 years ago.

It works by catching light and funnelling it to the brain, where it is processed into images.

The process is able to work because the retinitis pigmentosa which has damaged her sight hasn’t affected the brain circuitry Miss Lewis needs to be able to ‘see’. Instead, the hereditary disease gradually destroys the light-sensitive retina at the back of the eye itself.

                          

The implant could revolutionise the treatment of blindness – and could be available on the NHS in just two years, with the first beneficiaries likely to be patients who have the same condition as Miss Lewis.

But in time, the chip from German firm Retina Implant AG could be used to treat age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness among the elderly.

Miss Lewis, who has also barely been able to see with her left eye for six years, was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a child.

A mother of 18-year-old twins, she hasn’t been able to see their faces clearly since they were ten. 

However doctors at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford were able to begin the process of restoring her vision during a seven-hour operation to fit the implant. 

One of the first things she saw after the treatment – sunbeams dancing on a car – moved her to tears.

Miss Lewis, who features in tomorrow’s episode of Trust Me, I’m A Doctor on BBC2, said: ‘I walked up the street, and... there was a silver car. 

'I couldn’t believe it – the signal was really strong. I was quite teary. Now when I locate something, like a fork on the table, it’s pure elation. It’s pure joy to get it right.’

Seven months on from the procedure, her vision is still improving and it is hoped that one day she will be able to recognise her son and daughter again.

She is the first of at least six Britons to be given the implant in a trial part-funded by the Health Service. Six others have already benefited from a more basic device, and if it continues to impress it could be available on the NHS by 2018.

It is likely to cost around £50,000 – on a par with training a guide dog for the blind.

Lead researcher Professor Robert MacLaren, an eye specialist at Oxford University, said: ‘If we can give someone enough vision to see where they are in their home... then we’ve achieved a great deal. We’re at the start of some very exciting technology.’

Source: DailyMail, Tue Metro.