The Gift of Sight

At this season of gift-giving, we note the anniversary of one of the greatest gifts of all: restoration of eyesight for a person with limited or no vision. New York ophthalmologist R. Townley Paton made this gift possible for thousands of people when he established the Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration on December 15, 1944—78 years ago today. It was the first eye bank in the world.

Dr. Paton had performed sight-restoring surgery when he was able to obtain corneas for transplantation. The challenge was getting the material: human corneas. Because the cornea is essential for sight, no living person could be expected to donate a cornea; it had to come from a recently deceased individual. Dr. Paton had an idea: partner with other ophthalmologists and hospitals to expand the pool of cornea donations for transplantation.

Initially, 22 New York-area hospitals participated in the eye bank, which was based at the Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital. After Eastern Airlines offered to fly transplantable tissue anywhere in the country, the hospital network more than doubled. Within a year of the eye bank’s founding, 60 patients had undergone sight-restoring surgery. These days, close to 50,000 cornea transplants are performed in the United States each year.