時尚雙語:“以牙換眼”讓愛爾蘭人重見光明
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.
本週三，在兩年前的一次爆炸事故中失明的一名愛爾蘭人稱，醫生將其兒子的牙齒植入他的眼睛後，他得以重見光明。
57歲的鮑勃•麥克尼克來自愛爾蘭西部的梅奧郡。2005年11月，一個廢品回收站內滾燙的鋁水發生意外爆炸，導致他失明。
麥克尼克在接受愛爾蘭國家電臺的採訪時說：“我本以爲自己再也看不見東西了。”
可就在愛爾蘭的醫生們束手無策之時，麥克尼克聽說英格蘭布萊頓市的蘇塞克斯眼科醫院有一位Chiristopher Liu博士，他能做一種名叫“骨齒人工角膜植入術”的神奇手術。
該技術於上世紀60年代起源於意大利，它是用病人自己的牙齒和牙齒附近的骨頭來支撐人造角膜。
麥克尼克23歲的兒子羅伯特參與了他的手術，他爲父親提供了一顆牙齒及其牙根，以及下巴的一部分。
醫生首先將部分牙齒植入麥克尼克重建後的右眼眶，然後將人造晶體嵌入牙齒上鑽好的孔裏。
第一次手術持續了十個小時，第二次持續了五個小時。
麥克尼克說：“這個手術相當複雜。我有65%的復明機率。”
他說：“以我現在的視力，我能夠四處走動，還能看電視。我的眼前不再是一片漆黑，可以做一些簡單的事情了。”
