The "Using Stem Cell Surgery To Repair Vision" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading the following article that at some point in my life, or possibly your life, may be of help to both of us.  The article in my daily morning newspaper was about a fellow named Phil Durst who had chemicals from a dishwashing machine squirt in his eyes.  He was in indescribable pain!  His left eye got the worst of the chemicals in his 2017 work accident.  It ended up stealing his vision and left him unable to tolerate light and triggered four to five cluster headaches a day.  Then he underwent an experimental procedure that aimed to treat severe injuries in one eye with stem cells from the other.  He went from completely blind with debilitating headaches to seeing well enough to drive and emerging from dark places literally and figuratively.   The 51 year old from Homewood, Alabama was one of four patients to get stem cell transplants as part of the first U.S. study to test the technique, which could someday help thousands.  Additional treatment could possibly be needed, but experts say the stem cell transplant offers hope to people with few if any other options.  The procedure is designed to treat "limbal stem cell deficiency," a corneal disorder that can occur after chemical burns and other eye injuries.  Patients without libel cells, which are essential for replenishing and maintaining the cornea's outermost layer, can't undergo corneal transplants that are commonly used to improve vision.  Dr. Jurkunas, an ophthalmologist at Mass. Eye and Ear in Boston, who was the principal investigator for the study, said the experimental technique involves taking a small biopsy of stem cells from the healthy eye, expanding and growing them on a graft in the lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.  A couple of weeks later they are sent back to be transplanted into the injured eye.  Phil was the first patient to undergo the procedure.  How scary can that be!  Both of Phil's eyes were hurt in the accident, which happened while the former chemical company manager was visiting a clinic having problems with the dishwashing machine.  For six to eight months, his overall vision was so bad his wife and son had to lead him around.  But his right eye was less injured and could provide stem cells for the transplant.  Jurkunas, who is also affiliated with Harvard Medical School, said Durst's 2018 surgery was the culmination of almost two decades of research so he felt immense happiness and excitement to finally perform it.  All patients in the study saw their cornea surfaces restored.  Phil said the vision in his right eye is nearly perfect, but the vision in his left eye is blurry; he's scheduled for a different procedure soon to address that.  Jurkunas estimates that 1,000 people in the U.S. per year could potentially benefit from this sort of stem cell transplant, which has also been studied in Japan.  I wish the best to Phil and am glad he had successful surgery.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.