Roger Pontz was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa when he was a teenager. Although in his fifties he's lived almost completely blind, there was a time when he was a factory worker and competitive weightlifter. Unfortunately, he was slowly robbed of his vision.
Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited disease that causes slow but progressive vision loss due to a gradual loss of the light-sensitive retinal cells called rods and cones. Patients experience loss of side vision and night vision, then central vision, which can result in near blindness.
Of the 100,000 people with this condition, less than 10% are eligible for a treatment developed by Second Sight which involves artificially implanting a "bionic eye" that works in tandem with a pair of glasses equipped with a video camera and transmitter. Images from the camera are converted to electrical impulses that are wirelessly transmitted to the surface of the retina which relays a signal to the optic nerve.
Eligible candidates must be over 25 and be at the end-stage of the disease with little to no light perception in both eyes.
Congratulations Roger! Excited about the technology and the drastic enhancement it brings to your quality of life!
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/04/23/michigan-man-among-first-in-us-to-receive-bionic-eye/?intcmp=latestnews
