Blindness gone with Bionic Eyes!!
How different Mahabharata would have been if King Dhithrastra, and the Queen Gandhari, parents of Kaurvas would have had bionic eyes!
Maybe we would have a different mythological history!
What is it like to see again after years of blindness?
After decades, the time has come where we can actually make a blind person with genetic or congenital retinal disorder regain vision with bionic eyes.
At Advanced Eye Hospital in Navi Mumbai, we recently had an online Diabetic Forum where diabetics interacted with our Retina Specialist, Dr. Yogesh Patil. This forum saw a tremendous response where many diabetics came forward and voiced out their concerns. Here we have compiled the top five queries that diabetics ask an eye specialist.
“Mom, what are those funny sunglasses?” five-year Arnav asked with a look of amusement. It was the first time Arnav had seen the blind Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge in the movie Star Trek. “Son that is a VISOR, a special device that helps him see despite his blindness.” Then why doesn’t the blind uncle in the PCO booth use it? “This is not real son, it’s just a movie...”
Researchers in UK have managed to pull off a feat wherein completely blind mice had their sight restored. In the study, headed by Prof Robert MacLaren conducted at the University of Oxford, mice were chosen who were blind due to severe human retinitis pigmentosa. There was total loss of the light sensitive cells in the retina (called as photoreceptor cells) which prevented the mice from even differentiating between light and dark. These mice’s eyes were injected with precursor cells. Precursor cells are those cells that are midway between stem cells and fully specialised retinal cells, i.e. they are on an initial path towards developing into cells of the retina.
Aspirin. If there ever were a celebrity amongst all medicines, this would probably be it. Which other drug can boast of a history like the following:
• Was used as a currency in South America in the last century during times of Hyperinflation. As the actual currency had become next to worthless, a few tablets of this valuable analgesic would be handed out as change.
• In 1950, this entered the Guinness Book of Records as the highest selling drug product.
• This drug has even been to space! It has been on all the Apollo rockets that NASA has sent to the moon.
Arshiya was a big fan of Facebook. She spent hours on the computer liking, commenting and updating. But she was a bigger fan of something else, her baby girl Aasma. And so, Aasma soon achieved celebrity status at the age of 2 months when her mom enthusiastically uploaded pictures on Facebook every other day. Arshiya proudly beamed as her friends debated on whom her baby resembled more and gushed about how she was the prettiest baby they had ever seen.
“We will need to get your babies’ eyes checked by a Paediatric Ophthalmologist.” Smita’s heart sank as soon as she was told this by her doctor. The last week had been one heck of a roller coaster ride. It all started with her Gynaecologist telling her that they would need to perform an emergency operation for her to have her baby prematurely. She had not even held her baby in her arms when it was whisked away to the NICU. Sometimes, the doctor gave her hopes when he said their baby was improving. At other times, she simply dreaded the doctor’s visits fearing they would tell her that her baby was no more.