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A bionic eye transformed the life of a woman from Colorado after two decades since she lost her eyesight. Jamie Carley, now 51-years old has fully lost her eyesight around the age of 26.
A bionic eye transformed the life of a woman from Colorado after two decades since she lost her eyesight. Jamie Carley, now 51-years old has fully lost her eyesight around the age of 26.
A resident of Denver, Jamie Carley was born with retinitis pigmentosa. Retinitis pigmentosa is a disease which triggers the slow death of the cells in the retina. As far she can remember, Mrs. Carley couldn’t see anything during the night. With no night vision for her entire life, she slowly started to lose peripheral vision and at the age of 26 years old she fully lost her eyesight. At that time, her son was very young. Ever since, she didn’t know she will ever see her son again.
With the help of a dedicated team with the University of Colorado Hospital Health Eye Center, Jamie Carley got her eyesight back despite the retinitis pigmentosa. A bionic eye transformed the life of a woman from Colorado and steered it for the better.
On November 2nd, Jamie Carley received her bionic eye implant. Only recently the bionic eye was turned on. The first feeling was amazing. And Jamie’s amazement continued to grow as for the first time in two decades she started seeing the world again.
The mechanism works with the help of a microchip implanted in the retina, a special pair of glasses to which a micro video camera is attached. The camera captures the real-life images and transmits them to a processing unit. From here, the video signal is transmitted once more to the glasses. From the glasses the signal is transmitted to the microchip. With the microchip, 60 electrodes make the connection with the optic nerve where the image is processed.
As such, Jamie Carley can see once more. The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System bionic eye considerably improved her life. During an interview, Jamie described the first thing she saw after two decades of darkness.
The window of the room where she was, its outline and then her own son. Upon finally seeing her son:
“It was pretty amazing. Hiding behind the glasses, I got a little teary-eyed. It was just so emotional”,
she stated.
The images that Jamie is seeing aren’t coloured. She can only perceive them in black and white. Nonetheless, Jamie Carley is grateful for the new opportunity to discover the world once more with the help of her bionic eye. For now, the wealth of images is overwhelming. Nonetheless, according to her doctors, over time Carley’s brain will adjust to the change and will once more learn how to interpret the signals it receives from the mechanism.
Photo Credits: og.infg.com.br
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