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American Morning

Gift of Sight

Aired August 27, 2003 - 07:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael May was blind for most of his life, but experimental cornea and stem cell implant surgery allowed him to partially regain his vision.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more about what researchers are learning from this remarkable achievement, and she joins us this morning from the CNN Center.

Elizabeth -- good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, he is indeed a remarkable man. A chemical explosion took away Michael May's sight when he was just 3 and a half years old. Then three years ago at the age of 43, Michael May had a stem cell transplant, which replaced the stem cells that had been damaged on the surface of his eye. Now, I say "eye" and not "eyes," because one of his eyes had already been removed, because it was so damaged.

Now, what Michael May found is that even though the surgery gave him his vision back, his brain has been having a hard time interpreting what his eye can see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MAY, VISION PARTIALLY RESTORED: In a way, there's not that much of a difference, and that's not to demean the value of vision. It's really fantastic. But the fact is that I have experienced the world and people and things around me in so many different ways that having some vision is icing on the cake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now, when Michael May first got his surgery, he found that he had -- it was an interesting experience. While he was blind, he was an expert skier, and a guide would be able to tell him what was coming along in his path and he was a great skier. When he first got his vision back, he actually closed his eyes because he found that having all of these things coming at him that he couldn't identify made him feel like he was going to get into a collision at any moment. So, that was sort of an unexpected result of the surgery. You would think that he would be glad to have his eyes while skiing, but in fact he wasn't.

What he can see now are shapes and colors. He has trouble making out the details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAY: It's wonderful to be able to see colors, and that's a big part of what I see. When I see a person, I don't see the details of their face, the shape of their nose and the curve of the lips, but I see the shape of the outline of their body and the size and color. And it's really fun to be able to pick that information up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: May says that his vision has improved in the three years since his surgery, but he says that he still feels that he's guessing very often at what's around him. He's not really sure of what he's seeing -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth, then, for researchers, clearly this is telling them that the brain plays a very big role in how the eyes interpret the information that's coming in. So, what happens and what's the fallout for other blind people? Is there information from all of this interesting stuff that they can use?

COHEN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, first of all, it does make this even more clear than ever that the brain plays such a crucial role. You can fix the eye or at least fix the eye to some extent, but if your brain for 40 years hasn't seen anything, then you're really not sure of what exactly it is that you're seeing. And if the brain has been sort of dormant, then it's hard to figure that out.

Now, what's also interesting is that we shouldn't think of this as a procedure to cover everyone who has lost their sight. He lost his sight in a specific way. He damaged the stem cells that are on the surface of the eye, so the transplant helped him. Other people who have lost their sight in other ways, this operation wouldn't really help. Some researchers are working on something called the "bionic eye" to help some of those people.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen for us at the CNN Center. Thanks, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired August 27, 2003 - 07:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael May was blind for most of his life, but experimental cornea and stem cell implant surgery allowed him to partially regain his vision.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more about what researchers are learning from this remarkable achievement, and she joins us this morning from the CNN Center.

Elizabeth -- good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, he is indeed a remarkable man. A chemical explosion took away Michael May's sight when he was just 3 and a half years old. Then three years ago at the age of 43, Michael May had a stem cell transplant, which replaced the stem cells that had been damaged on the surface of his eye. Now, I say "eye" and not "eyes," because one of his eyes had already been removed, because it was so damaged.

Now, what Michael May found is that even though the surgery gave him his vision back, his brain has been having a hard time interpreting what his eye can see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MAY, VISION PARTIALLY RESTORED: In a way, there's not that much of a difference, and that's not to demean the value of vision. It's really fantastic. But the fact is that I have experienced the world and people and things around me in so many different ways that having some vision is icing on the cake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now, when Michael May first got his surgery, he found that he had -- it was an interesting experience. While he was blind, he was an expert skier, and a guide would be able to tell him what was coming along in his path and he was a great skier. When he first got his vision back, he actually closed his eyes because he found that having all of these things coming at him that he couldn't identify made him feel like he was going to get into a collision at any moment. So, that was sort of an unexpected result of the surgery. You would think that he would be glad to have his eyes while skiing, but in fact he wasn't.

What he can see now are shapes and colors. He has trouble making out the details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAY: It's wonderful to be able to see colors, and that's a big part of what I see. When I see a person, I don't see the details of their face, the shape of their nose and the curve of the lips, but I see the shape of the outline of their body and the size and color. And it's really fun to be able to pick that information up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: May says that his vision has improved in the three years since his surgery, but he says that he still feels that he's guessing very often at what's around him. He's not really sure of what he's seeing -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth, then, for researchers, clearly this is telling them that the brain plays a very big role in how the eyes interpret the information that's coming in. So, what happens and what's the fallout for other blind people? Is there information from all of this interesting stuff that they can use?

COHEN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, first of all, it does make this even more clear than ever that the brain plays such a crucial role. You can fix the eye or at least fix the eye to some extent, but if your brain for 40 years hasn't seen anything, then you're really not sure of what exactly it is that you're seeing. And if the brain has been sort of dormant, then it's hard to figure that out.

Now, what's also interesting is that we shouldn't think of this as a procedure to cover everyone who has lost their sight. He lost his sight in a specific way. He damaged the stem cells that are on the surface of the eye, so the transplant helped him. Other people who have lost their sight in other ways, this operation wouldn't really help. Some researchers are working on something called the "bionic eye" to help some of those people.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen for us at the CNN Center. Thanks, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.