Never give up hope…

Man blinded during Blitz regains sight

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent

Last Updated: 1:21am BST 08/04/2008

 

 
A man who was blinded in one eye during the Blitz has had his sight restored more than six decades later.
John Gray, 87, was badly injured in 1941 during a Luftwaffe raid on Clydeside and lost the use of his right eye.
When old age caused him to lose the sight in his left eye, specialists decided to re-examine the wartime wound.
An eye surgeon at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow has now replaced the damaged lens, allowing Mr Gray to see with the eye he has not used for over 60 years.
His restored eyesight is so good it would allow him to sit a driving test.
Mr Gray, from Glasgow, said he was delighted and “couldn’t be more pleased” with the results of the operation.
He was on duty as a firewatcher in 1941 when the air raid sirens sounded.
The Luftwaffe’s two-day raid left 1,200 people dead. Part of the German strategy was to drop landmines to stop the emergency services reaching the scene of the bombing.
One landmine landed on the cold store that Mr Gray was sheltering in, and he had serious injuries when he was rescued from the rubble eight hours later.
He recalled: “We just heard some glass shattering and that was the last thing I heard until I came to in the Victoria Infirmary with my leg stretched out in plaster and a big bandage on my head.
I had an injury to my head which took the sight away from my right eye.”
He was told he would never see with the damaged eye, but decades later Frank Munro, an optometrist who was the son of an old friend, examined the wound again.
He realised that the retina was healthy, and that all the damage was to the lens.
He decided that it was too risky to operate at the time, but said the eye could potentially be used as a “spare” at a later date. Last year, after Mr Gray developed macular degeneration, an eye surgeon removed the scar tissue from his old wound and inserted an artificial lens.
Doctors were concerned that the part of the brain that processes sight from the right eye might not work after a gap of six decades.
But after a few weeks his vision returned and he can now read small print.
Mr Gray said his optometrist and his eye surgeon, Dr Ian Bryce, “deserved a knighthood”.
Daily Telegraph