Canadian research provides hope that children like this visually impaired boy in India will be able to move out of the shadows. The photo shows a darkened room with a young man sitting on a bed. Sunlight is streaming in through a window to his left. He is looking to his right. Behind the young man is a gray wall. To his left is a couch decorated with an East Indian blanket.

Canadian research provides hope that children like this visually impaired boy in India will finally be able to move out of the shadows.
Photo Credit: AP Photo / Sanjeev Syal

Canadian research offers new hope for blind people

Let’s be honest. A great majority of us–maybe even everyone–dream of doing great things. Some of us get there. Too many of us let it all slide, caught up in rationalization, surviving and making the rent.

Greatness is not about the glory. Did Mr. Mandela and Dr. King make their sacrifices in the name of glory? Unlikely

Dr. Robert Koenekoop, who is both an geneticist a ophthalmologist, led a study that offers great hope for many blind people, especially children. He is shown performing an eye examination on a child of bout two or three. Dr. Koenekoop has an instrument help up to his right eye. He is wearing a white lab coat. A handsome man starting to gray, he has a kind face.
Dr. Robert Koenekoop, who is both an geneticist and ophthalmologist, led a study that offers hope for many blind people, especially children. © Courtesy: Montreal Children’s Hospital

No. Greatness may be achieved with little or no fanfare. Think of the mother and father raising a special needs child, the teacher spending her own money for students’ school supplies and staying way after school to help a kid catch a glimpse of the light. We all examples we’ve witnessed. The ones that bring little public glory there, the times we witness somone doing the right thing.

Greatness is about perseverance and humility, not settling for that enticing ease of mediocrity.

When we meet someone great, we know it in a heartbeat!

I met one of those persons over the phone last week. His name is Robert Koenekoop. He is both a geneticist and an ophthalmologist. He works at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, part of the McGill University Health Centre.

What he has achieved over the past five years is remarkable.

Dr. Koenekoop and his medical research team set forth into the unknown. They did not turn back. They dealt with bureaucrats, they dealt with money issues, they headed down a lot of scientific blind alleys. But they kept pushing forward.

Timothy Peters tries to figure out a brain-teaser on a Canadian National Institute for the Blind website, the Children's Discovery Portal. The site allows blind children to chat with one another, swap jokes, and participate in a number of online activities. The boy, about eight or nine it appears, is sitting in desk chair and has his right hand to his chin as he attempts to work out something in his mind. He has short brown hair and is looking slightly down. The computer looms to his right on a desk. Behind him is a tan wall.
Timothy Peters tries to figure out a brain-teaser on a Canadian National Institute for the Blind website, the Children’s Discovery Portal. The site allows blind children to chat with one another, swap jokes, and participate in a number of online activities. © Canadian Press/SHERYL NADLER

In the end, this team of Montrealers took a giant step toward healing one of humanity’s scourges: blindness.

The breakthrough is limited to people with a specific type of gene mutation, but through scientific trial and error–and against virtually all previous conventional wisdom–Dr. Koenekoop and his researchers were the first to test an oral liquid drug for childhood blindness.

After animal studies, came the work with human beings. Patients were given an oral liquid once daily for seven days. Tests showed many of them were able to see sharper and see a larger area thanks to the treatment.

Their vision was best at about two months after the treatment began. The benefits often continued for up to a year. Some patients more than doubled their field of vision.

Ten of the 14 patients in the study showed improvement.

Last weekend, the team’s work was recognized and published in The Lancet, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world.

“I think this study gives great hope to all blind patients,” Dr. Koenekoop said in a published interview. “It’s just not the drug for everybody, but it is sending a message to all blind patients from all different causes that stuff is happening and things are coming.”

Results now must be replicated in different studies before it can be submitted to the Canadian and U.S. governments for approval and then go on the market.

I spoke by phone with Dr. Koenekoop at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

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