New surgery on the NHS saves sight of 28-year-old firefighter Lynsey

The video above is a Look North item including an interview with James Ball of St James Laser Vision.

Sharp eyes and a calm response, when faced with life-threatening situations, have been Lynsey Philpott’s stock-in-trade since she became a firefighter nine years ago. But in January this year, the 28-year-old was devastated by a routine eye test which revealed she was in danger of going blind after developing cataracts.

In Lynsey’s case, the condition was hereditary – both her father and paternal grandmother have cataracts. Only 200 children a year are born with congenital cataracts and of these, only a fifth have a family history of the condition.

When I went to see James Ball, the ophthalmic surgeon at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, I didn’t really have a clue what cataracts were other than it was something that affected the elderly.

The cataract surgery involved making an incision at the edge of the cornea and inserting the lens. Within hours of the operation, Lynsey was back home and had to take a month off work to let her eyes recover but she is now back full-time.

“After the surgery the change was unbelievable – it was like having my eyes open for the first time,” she says. “If it hadn’t been for the surgery, my career would have been in jeopardy. I just feel the luckiest woman in Britain that this type of technology is around.”

Now, after becoming the first NHS patient to undergo revolutionary new eye treatment, Lynsey has been given perfect vision for the rest of her life and last month resumed work at her fire station in Rawdon, Yorkshire.

You can read the whole article here.