(Man's voice) - R...H...O
I think the best way to describe it is when you open your eyes underwater in a swimming pool.
It's like looking through water.
- Cataract is an opacity in the lens.
Inside our eyes there is a lens that is crystal clear
but, as time passes, as we get older the lens get cloudy.
- I could basically only see colors
and I couldn't read all my favorite things.
Bird-feeders, all I saw was when they were empty
but I couldn't see the birds eating them
so I knew that I had to do something.
Hi, my name's Teddy, I'm 59 years old and I'm from Danbury, Connecticut.
I'm supposed to be thinking that everything's gonna be fine,
but from inside looking out,
I find it hard to believe that a human can restore what I've lost.
- This is a complex cataract surgery
- His cataract surgery could be very high risk
because there's possibility the posterior capsule, which is back holding the lens, was broken.
- (Teddy) It's about 5 after 8 in the morning.
I'm not a morning person, but I have to do this.
- I'm going to have you tilt your head back
and look up for me.
- (Dr. Adelman) Most of the time we do not put the patient under,
so there's no general anesthesia.
- (Teddy) I was awake for it, which sort of scared me ahead of time
but the drops helped a lot and, I gotta tell you,
there was no pain, no discomfort, nothing.
- Hello Mr. Doug! How are you doing? Nice to see you. - Good to see you.
- When you start to do eye surgery,
because it's such a delicate organ and it's microscopic surgery, it seems very difficult.
But, as time passes, it becomes second nature.
So now we are cleaning around the eye,
this is a prevention of infection,
a procedure we call prepping the eye.
- They inserted the instrument to break the lens.
- (Dr. Adelman) And now lens is divided to two pieces.
- (Teddy) I couldn't see anything other than a big, blurry light
and I watched it disappear one-third at at time.
- (Dr. Adelman) One of the quadrants is vacuumed into the ultrasound needle.
- And then they took the other one out and then they took the third one out
and now I'm perfectly blind.
- Ted, I want you to look to the left a little bit
- (Teddy) As I heard them put the new lens in and I saw that light again!
- (Dr. Adelman) So now the lens is inside the iris,
slowly it opens its legs that keep the lens in place.
The lens is stable.
- (Teddy) I didn't feel anything at all, it's amazing!
Absolutely amazing.
They were expecting complications and it wound up being a normal cataract surgery
and I think I was in and out of there in 47 minutes.
The surgery was less than that.
- Good morning! - Good morning, how are you?
You're here to see Dr. Liu today? - Yes, ma'am.
- Alright, you can have a seat on that side. - Thank you very much.
- Good morning, Teddy! How are you doing?
- Good, good. Good to see you.
Alright, first of all, you'll feel more comfortable without this patch.
- Well, there's light coming through my eyelid.
Oh my god! [Laughs] Woah!
- Good! - I know it's you with both eyes!
- Holy cow!
- I may look a little different today.
- Crazy, man, crazy.
- You did an excellent job, congratulations.
- Oh, I can see the "Finding Nemo" on the wall! I found Nemo! [Laughs]
- You're ready for the real test?
- There were a 150, 200, 300 components to my visits at Yale
and every single one of them was just perfect.
Everything worked out from parking the car, to pressing the button on the elevator, it opened right away
the simplest detail to the most complex detail, everything was in my favor.