Doctors to give blinded boy artificial eyes
Print Edition
A BOY who had his eyes gouged out more than 10 days ago may regain some sight in the future, a doctor said yesterday.
In Hong Kong, eye expert Dennis Lam confirmed earlier reports that his team would treat Guo Bin at no charge and he said future technology might restore up to 40 percent of the six-year-old’s lost vision.
Lam said he was still waiting for consent from the child’s parents to bring him to his eye hospital in Shenzhen in southern China, where he could be given a pair of prosthetic eyes as early as next week.
Cameras in the eyes would relay a signal, based on the shape of objects, to an electric pulse generator connected to his tongue which would help him to recognize shapes, Lam said.
The final goal is to give the boy bionic eyes linked directly to the brain which will help him partially regain his sight. It was a technology still being developed.
“In the high end it could be 20 to 40 percent when we talk about 10 years down the road. It’s a wild guess. The ultimate goal is to help him to see again,” the doctor said.
Lam’s medical team visited Guo in north China’s Shanxi Province on Saturday.
Doctors at the hospital where Guo is currently being treated said he could have a pair of artificial eyes implanted within a month, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Jia Yading, director of the Shanxi Eye Hospital, said the six-year-old’s eyelids had healed and the hospital would be able to carry out the procedure. But they would not restore his sight, Jia said.
The woman suspected of the horror attack was Guo’s aunt who later committed suicide. Police said Guo’s blood had been found on Zhang Huiying’s clothes after she had killed herself by jumping into a well in Qiaojiazhuan Village six days after the attack.
Initial reports said the boy was playing outside his home when he was lured into a field by an unidentified woman on August 24. Family members found the boy later that night in a remote area, his face covered in blood and his eyelids swollen.
At the time, Guo described his attacker as a woman with dyed blonde hair who spoke in a non-local accent.
But his mother told The Associated Press yesterday that the boy had been disoriented after the traumatizing attack.
“It is easy to understand that he wasn’t clear about the situation,” Wang Wenli said. “He said her accent was from another region, but he later amended that. He then said it was a local accent, but he did not say that it was his aunt.”
It was reported that the aunt had argued with the boy’s parents over money for the care of his paralyzed grandfather.
But Wang said: “I have heard that someone said we had a dispute over taking care of the grandfather, but that is just a lie.”
The aunt’s relatives also denied claims of a dispute over money. Her younger brother, Zhang Ruihua, said everyone had agreed to share the cost of caring for the grandfather.
The aunt’s family said she was an extremely timid person who had developed a mental disorder after the shock of seeing her grandmother in her coffin.
Her sister said that after police questioned her, she felt very frightened and said someone was going to take her away.
The boy is gradually recovering from his ordeal. Film of him being guided by a doctor as he feels his way around a hospital room was aired by China Central Television. He’s seen singing a song to a doctor and playing with a toy elephant, teddy bear and other toys.
“He talks to me, and he plays with toys that people have sent him,” Wang said. “He still doesn’t know that he will likely be blind for the rest of his life.”
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