August 5, 2013 – A Montreal man that was blind for 68 years can now see, thanks to a nasty fall down the stairs.
Pierre-Paul Thomas was born blind in 1945. He had a condition that damaged the optic nerves in his eyes, cataracts, and a syndrome called congenital nystagmus, which causes fast involuntary eye movements.
He'd had lots surgeries when he was younger to try and fix his vision. None of them worked and he learned to live only seeing faint shadows.
Then, in 2011 he fell down the stairs and had surgery to reconstruct his eye sockets. Several months later at a follow-up appointment, Dr. Lucie Lessard asked him, "Oh, while we're at it, do you want us to fix your eyes too?"
Thomas was thrilled and had the surgery. Now he can see, which makes him very happy but also very overwhelmed because he has to learn a lot of things that we learn when we are very young.
He has to learn colours and has trouble figuring out what objects are based on what they look like because he has figured out what things are using his hands his whole life. "I reassure myself about what something is by checking with my fingers," he said. "I'm like a child all over again."
But even though it can be scary at times, Thomas is overjoyed to have his sight!
