Retina Transplant

[Anchor Lead]

How would it feel to recover your lost eyesight after ten years? For the first time in Korea, a blind woman in her 50s has successfully regained her sight through an artificial retina transplant.

[Pkg]

This woman wearing specially designed glasses looks around.

[Soundbite] "I see the form."

She recognizes her husband for the first time in ten years since she completely lost sight caused by a genetic illness. She also embraces her now grown daughter.

[Soundbite] "Thank you so much."

[Soundbite] Lee Hwa-jeong (Received Artificial Retina Transplant) : "I'm truly happy to just recognize my family beside me."

Visually impaired Lee Hwa-jeong has successfully recovered vision all thanks to an artificial retina transplant operation. It's the first of its kind carried out in Korea. A retina chip is planted on the eyeball and the person identifies images taken by a camera.

[Soundbite] "This is S."

The camera attached to the glasses takes an image which is then specially processed by a portable computer and transferred to the retina chip. Cerebral nerves are then stimulated and perceive the transmitted image.

[Soundbite] Prof. Yoon Yeong-hee (Asan Medical Center) : "It's quite a difficult operation combining all techniques used by regular retina physicians."

This artificial retina transplant has benefited only about 230 patients worldwide. It's only been implemented in a handful of countries including the US and Britain. Some ten-thousand visually impaired Koreans who suffer from genetic retina disorders can also regain eyesight through this operation. The number one obstacle however is the steep cost of surgery at nearly 200 million won.