As recently as the 1950s, people with sight clouded by cataracts would slowly go blind with no hope of a cure. Today, in most cases, a cataract sufferer's eyesight can be restored to what it was when they were a teenager in an operation taking just thirty minutes. The man responsible for this incredible breakthrough was British ophthalmologist Harold Ridley (1906-2001), although he had to battle for this achievement to be recognized by his peers.
During World War II Ridley treated pilots with injuries caused by shards of Perspex® from their cockpits being lodged in the eye. He noticed that the Perspex® did not react with the eye and realized that, its inert quality, combined with its lightness and optical properties, made it ideal for the construction of replacement lenses for damaged eyes. He confided this information to optical scientist John Pike, who helped design and make the first-ever intraocular lens. Ridley implanted it into a forty-five-year-old female patient in a two-step operation in 1949.
Despite being a breakthrough, the procedure was not seen as such by a skeptical medical community. Previous to this, eye surgeons only ever removed objects such as foreign bodies or tumors from the eye, and never inserted anything into it. Eventually, after staying resolute in the face of scornful ridicule, his genius was recognized. The invention marked a major change in ophthalmologic practice and helped to pioneer artificial device implementation in medicine.
Ridley's procedure is now a routine operation and surgeons annually implant more than 6 million lenses. More than 60 million people with otherwise disabling cataracts have benefited from his invention. Since 1999 intraocular lenses have also been used to correct serious problems with focusing the eye.
