Allen Zderad from Minnesota, has been suffering from an untreatable degenerative eye disease that caused his vision to deteriorate and gradually got lost completely. Until now, Zderad has been unable to see anything other than bright light. But thanks to some groundbreaking technology, the 68-year-old man partly regained his vision and saw his wife for the first time after 10 years, with the help of a bionic eye implant.
‘It works! It’s crude, but it’s significant’, Zderad emotionally said after using the device at the Mayo Clinic.
According to his doctors, Zderad was part of the first clinical trial in Minnesota for the device, that was made by Second Sight Inc. He went through surgery in January and had a tiny chip embedded in his right eye. Two weeks later, the rest of the device, which was set inside a pair of special glasses, was activated. And as you can see in the video below, the results are quite impressive. ‘His whole life we have heard that “Nothing can be done” – it’s all we’ve heard, until now.’, Zderad’s delighted wife, Carmen said.
Although, Zderad can only notice shapes and outlines so far, he admits that it’s not hard to spot his wife: ‘She’s the most beautiful one in the room.’ Zderad still needs to spend hours of physical therapy in order to be able to use the bionic eye to its full potential, but he sure is very optimistic about the future:
‘I have a lot of fun with my grandkids and family. I think it would be good to recognize when they come in the room, and observe their growing and things like that.’
Watch Zderad’s first reaction after using his bionic eye for the first time and seeing his wife, HERE:
