Clearer Vision: 2 Valley residents get free cataract surgery

By Denise Dick

2 Valley residents get free cataract surgery

The two patients will return in a few weeks for surgery on their other eyes.

BOARDMAN — Walter “Bud” Gane, 79, and Carroll Merriman, 64, have each worn eyeglasses for about 30 years, but in a few weeks that long-standing necessity will be a thing of the past.

Gane, of Youngstown, and Merriman, of East Liverpool, were two of 100 people across the country to undergo surgery last week to implant the crystalens intraocular lenses for cataracts.

Drs. Kong T. Oh and Tac Z. Lee of Oh Eye Associates performed the surgeries on the two Valley residents at Southwoods Surgery Center. The program, Changing 100 Lives in 100 Minutes, was sponsored by Bausch Lomb, which manufactures the crystalens intraocular lenses. The company donated the lenses, which generally aren’t covered by private insurance or Medicare. Baush Lomb is sponsoring the program to mark the 100,000th implant of the lenses.

A lens was implanted in one eye of each patient. They will return at a later date for surgery on their other eyes.

“It will take a couple of weeks, but then I won’t need glasses anymore,” Gane said.

The ophthalmologists performed the surgeries free.

Gane, who started wearing glasses in his early 50s, didn’t know he had cataracts until a recent visit to the eye doctor.

“I thought I needed new glasses,” he said. “I was having trouble reading The Vindicator and doing the crossword puzzle.”

The doctor informed him that he didn’t need new glasses; he needed the cataracts removed.

“I don’t know why he picked me, but I’m sure glad he did,” Gane said.

Merriman, who started wearing glasses in the 1970s, knew she had cataracts. The doctors have been monitoring them.

“When I read something, I have to look below it [the cataract] or above it to see,” Merriman said.

The cataract creates a blurry spot upon the eye.

She too is grateful for the program.

“I would never have been able to afford to get [the lenses] otherwise,” Merriman said.

Because their eyes are still healing, she and Gane don’t see a dramatic difference in their sight yet, but they’re looking forward to no longer needing glasses.

“It will be freedom,” Merriman said.

The Bausch & Lomb lenses are different from other cataract-correcting lenses in that they use the eye’s natural focusing ability.

Dr. Oh, who performed Gane’s surgery, explained that the new Bausch & Lomb lens is “accommodative,” meaning the eyes of a patient who receives the implants can focus at all distances usually without need of glasses.

Other lenses are monofocal and don’t move, only allowing patients to see at distances. They generally must rely on glasses to focus up close, the doctor said.

The doctors were selected by Bausch & Lomb to perform the surgeries and they selected their patients. Dr. Oh said Gane and Merriman were picked because they would benefit from the lenses but wouldn’t have been able to afford them. Dr. Oh wouldn’t say how much the surgery would cost.

Each surgery lasted about 10 minutes.