Surrey man receives artificial cornea

A 91-year-old man who became the first patient in England to receive an artificial cornea says having it has made his life “fuller”.

Cecil Farley, from Chobham, Surrey, faced a year-long wait for sight-saving surgery after a human cornea transplant failed.

But he was offered a chance to skip the queue for an artificial one.

Medics hope one day the artificial corneas could reduce the need for human cornea donations.

Mr Farley, who said he had suffered problems with his right eye for about 15 years, had the procedure in February.

He said he had gone from having no vision in the eye to the sight slowly returning.

Mr Farley said: “It makes your life fuller when your eyes work properly – you don’t realise how debilitating it is until it happens to you.

“I can still see my wife after 63 years of marriage, we can just carry on as normal and live life as fully as we can.”

The procedure – likened to a contact lens being surgically attached to the eye by a single stitch and put in place with a gas bubble – was offered to Mr Farley by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Consultant ophthalmologist Thomas Poole said the use of artificial corneas was a “great advancement for patient care”.

Mr Poole and his colleague, Hanbin Lee, have successfully given four patients artificial corneas in the past two months and initial results have shown an improvement in vision.

Only 200 have so far been implanted worldwide, including in Mr Farley, the experts said.