Cataract patient amazes eye surgeons

Newmedica’s Plymouth eye surgery centre

 

Consultants gained a surprise rare insight from a cataract patient into the changes of sight-saving surgery during the past three decades.

(Left to right): Bob Armstrong (patient) Amanda Worley (operations director), Mr Nick Edmeades (consultant ophthalmologist) and Barrie Furzeland (patient).

Barrie Furzeland, aged 74, was at Newmedica Plymouth eye clinic to have a cataract operation when he astonished the team with tales of having a cataract removed from his other eye 34 years previously.

Consultants expressed amazement because they had never heard of anyone going such a long time between two cataract surgeries, so they invited him back to share more details about medical science’s incredible leaps forward.

Barrie explained that his first cataract had been caused by a freak impact trauma he sustained when the knot on a lawnmower’s starter cord hit him in the eyeball.

He said he was unable to pay £800 to have the surgery he needed, so he was left blind in one eye by the cataract for nine months while he was on the waiting list.

He added: ‘My eye was watering like hell and it was grey and I couldn’t see out of it. I’d gone to the eye infirmary and the doctor asked how long it’d been going on, and I said I got it the day before. He was surprised it was so immediate.

Back in time

‘Eventually, after three-quarters of a year, I was called in. The hospital was so old-fashioned, like the Victorian era. I felt I’d travelled back in time.

‘After the operation, I had to wear a bandage and a shield over my eye. When they took it off, because I wasn’t used to sunlight, I was almost blinded by the brightness, so I then had to wear sunglasses for a couple of weeks.’

 

Fast forward to 2023. A cataract that had been developing in Barrie’s other eye was getting worse and he only waited a few weeks for his surgery.

He said: ‘After the surgery, I was amazed at the quality of my vision. When I had my first cataract done, I was still in hospital two days later. Nowadays, it’s a ten-minute procedure and you go home without any pain. 

‘Straightaway, I was able to read, row on the river, walk the dogs, play golf, do some gardening and mow the wicket on the cricket pitch. It’s incredible what they did and the speed they did it.’

Consultant Mr Vasant Raman said: ‘I’ve never heard of someone going so long between cataract surgeries, so his insights gave us a unique understanding of the patient’s perspective of the technological innovation and how it impacts the post-operation recovery and the visual rehabilitation.

‘Of course, with the progress of technology and medical research, our procedures are significantly more efficient today, in many ways. Surgery takes ten minutes and is performed under local anaesthetics instead of what might have been an hour and 30 minutes years ago, with most operations conducted under general anaesthesia back then.’

Newmedica Plymouth is run by a team of five local partners – operations director Amanda Worley, and consultant ophthalmologists Mr Vasant Raman, Mr Tom Cudrnak, Mr Nick Edmeades and Miss Theodora Stavropoulou.