When my daughter was 5, she had a frightening incident involving a foreign object in her eye. We had no idea what it was, but every effort to flush it out with water failed. Clearly in pain, she cried and repeated, "I can't see! It hurts!" I was scared out of my mind, afraid she'd have permanent eye damage. I called the doctor's office in tears, and in the end, a pediatric ophthalmologist used specialized equipment to identify and remove a TINY, thin, clear piece of plastic.
In Saving Sight, Andrew Lam writes about eye injuries that are 1,000 times worse than what my daughter experienced.
This book has two main focuses, both of which made for really fascinating and compelling reading: the author's personal experiences with various types of eye issues he has encountered with his patients, and the individuals who made the amazing advances in technology and medicine that help cure those eye conditions.
I appreciated the author's frank honesty as he recounted the care he gave his patients. He was at times doubtful and uncertain, but he utilized his training and found solutions to whatever problems were put in front of him. In this line of work, in which the doctor is literally giving people the gift of sight - which, in turn, is sometimes equivalent to the gift of life itself - one might imagine that such a doctor would develop a kind of God complex. But, Dr. Lam comes across as humble and dedicated, with a bedside manner that I wish my doctors had.
The stories behind the major innovations in eye care were equally interesting. Most of us probably don't give a second thought to the specialized equipment, techniques, and drugs used to examine, improve, and maintain our eye sight (like LASIK) or to cope with loss of sight (like braille). But, wow! These inventions and advancements - and the people behind them - have had and continue to have such an incredibly significant impact on so many people's lives that I really think Dr. Lam is doing the world a service by telling their stories. As a sort of added bonus, many of the stories have a World War II connection that any history buff would be likely to appreciate. (It's not surprising that the author received his undergraduate degree in History, as noted in the "About the Author" section.)
If you're very squeamish, it may be worth noting that some of the information outlining medical procedures performed on the eyes is explicit and detailed. Also, the book describes medical research performed on animals, which may not be agreeable to everyone (though hopefully everyone would be able to see the important scientific value of such research). Even Monsanto, the giant of recent GMO (genetically modified organisms) backlash, makes a cameo in a positive light.
While thoroughly appreciating all that I read in this book, I sometimes wondered if the one book tried to be too many things all at once. As a whole, the book is readable and approachable, though the writing style jumps around between informal first-person narrative (like a memoir), third-person historical fiction, and straight-up non-fiction. Tangential commentary popped up here and there about different aspects of the American medical system, like the medicolegal climate and flaws in the healthcare system. Though still interesting to read, these observations were like side discussions relative to the main ideas of the book.
Finally, as a person with a close family member with Parkinson's Disease, I sometimes feel it is my responsibility to help accurately spread Parkinson's awareness. On page 51 of the paperback version, Dr. Irving S. Cooper is said to have "developed a freezing probe...to cure Parkinson's disease." Many people might just gloss over the sentence, but in this case, I am a stickler for word choice. While Parkinson's Disease can be "managed" with medicine and surgery, there is no actual cure yet - though many dedicated people are working towards finding one. The U.S. National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health describes Dr. Cooper this way: "He developed several novel techniques for the surgical management of Parkinson's disease," and his work helped to "alleviate the movement disorders associated with Parkinson's disease." (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/98...)
Overall, a really interesting read that I think any person who has ever seen an eye doctor would appreciate. An inspirational book that I will keep on my bookshelf and encourage my children to read when they are older.
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