Blind Irishman sees with the aid of son's tooth in his eye

An Irishman blinded by an explosion two years ago has had his sight restored after doctors inserted his son's tooth in his eye, he said on Wednesday.

Bob McNichol, 57, from County Mayo in the west of the country, lost his sight in a freak accident when red-hot liquid aluminium exploded at a re-cycling business in November 2005.

"I thought that I was going to be blind for the rest of my life," McNichol told RTE state radio.

After doctors in Ireland said there was nothing more they could do, McNichol heard about a miracle operation called Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (OOKP) being performed by Dr Christopher Liu at the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton in England.

The technique, pioneered in Italy in the 1960s, involves creating a support for an artificial cornea from the patient's own tooth and the surrounding bone.

The procedure used on McNichol involved his son Robert, 23, donating a tooth, its root and part of the jaw.

McNichol's right eye socket was rebuilt, part of the tooth inserted and a lens inserted in a hole drilled in the tooth.

The first operation lasted ten hours and the second five hours.

"It is pretty heavy going," McNichol said. "There was a 65 percent chance of me getting any sight.

"Now I have enough sight for me to get around and I can watch television. I have come out from complete darkness to be able to do simple things," McNichol said.

(Agencies)

本周三，在两年前的一次爆炸事故中失明的一名爱尔兰人称，医生将其儿子的牙齿植入他的眼睛后，他得以重见光明。

57岁的鲍勃•麦克尼克来自爱尔兰西部的梅奥郡。2005年11月，一个废品回收站内滚烫的铝水发生意外爆炸，导致他失明。

麦克尼克在接受爱尔兰国家电台的采访时说：“我本以为自己再也看不见东西了。”

可就在爱尔兰的医生们束手无策之时，麦克尼克听说英格兰布莱顿市的苏塞克斯眼科医院有一位Chiristopher Liu博士，他能做一种名叫“骨齿人工角膜植入术”的神奇手术。

该技术于上世纪60年代起源于意大利，它是用病人自己的牙齿和牙齿附近的骨头来支撑人造角膜。

麦克尼克23岁的儿子罗伯特参与了他的手术，他为父亲提供了一颗牙齿及其牙根，以及下巴的一部分。

医生首先将部分牙齿植入麦克尼克重建后的右眼眶，然后将人造晶体嵌入牙齿上钻好的孔里。

第一次手术持续了十个小时，第二次持续了五个小时。

麦克尼克说：“这个手术相当复杂。我有65%的复明几率。”

他说：“以我现在的视力，我能够四处走动，还能看电视。我的眼前不再是一片漆黑，可以做一些简单的事情了。”

Vocabulary:

red-hot:炽热的

(news from Chinadaily)