A man who was considered legally blind can see more clearly today. It's all thanks to a new procedure that helps restore sight.
For Clinton Gee, everything he sees is blurry.

Clinton Gee, an ICL Patient says, “It looks fuzzy from a distance, but as you get closer it gets a little clearer.”

Gee had a cornea transplant in the left eye, but he's very near sighted in the right. So he decided to try a new procedure called implantable collamer lens surgery. Dothan is one of a handful of places where the surgery is performed.

Dr. Peter Zloty M.D., an ophthalmologist at the Southeast Eye Clinic, says, “The two eyes are not working well together and this is a situation where you can't fix it with glasses and the reason he had a problem is because he had a contact lens infection.”

Doctors insert a polymer lens that fits in front of the patient’s natural lens. The procedure takes around 30 minutes. Some patients are awake while others receive anesthesia.

Dr. Zloty says, “The possibility is that he will see better in this eye than if he had glasses, contact lens or if he had lasik surgery.”

Thirty minutes after surgery we're going to check with Clinton and see how' he's doing. Hey how you doing?

Zloty asks, “Are things a lot clearer than they were?”

Gee responds, “Yeah.”

Zloty asks, “Can you look across the room and see things?”

Gee explains, “I can see you, and I can see Lisa, and I can see the nurse.”

Zloty says, “And there was a sign across the room that said fire extinguisher you could read that couldn't you?”

Gee says, “Yeah.”

Zloty says, “Is that a lot better than you were an hour ago?”
Gee says, “It is better.”

The whole surgery was made possible through a series of donations by local doctors. The implant was donated by star surgical.

Jim Mabry of Star Surgical says, “We pride ourselves in giving back to the community and helping people in need this was just a tremendous opportunity for us to do that.”

And for Gee, it's opened a new window of opportunity.

“Be able to travel and do stuff you know, like going down to Ecuador and seeing the mountains you know.”

There's very little pain after surgery. Gee will need to use eye drops and can take Tylenol for discomfort.

For more information on ICL call the southeast eye clinic at 334-794-1968