Jennifer Mathews: Reading the paper is a common way to start the day. But a month ago, it would have been difficult for Steve Howell to read the news.
Steve Howell: The glare off the newspaper, I would have been sitting here squinting hard to strain to see it.
Jennifer Mathews: One out of every 2,000 people like Steve suffer from a condition called Keratoconus. Normally, the cornea has a round dome shape. In eyes with keratoconus, the cornea weakens, causing it to bulge out like a cone. The end result: vision loss.
Steve Howell: You go and you try to see your kids play ball on the football field, and try to figure out which one is yours, and you can't see the number, and you can't see what's there.
Dr. Ming Wang: It's very frustrating for the doctors because we know what's wrong with the cornea, which is due to his weakness. We know the root cause, but we have no way to address the problem.
Jennifer Mathews: These small pieces of plastic could change that. Dr. Ming Wang inserts them into the cornea to strengthen it.
Dr. Ming Wang: Almost like if we have a tent which is just kind has weakened and is not very strong, so you thread a little ring within the tent itself to tent it up.
Jennifer Mathews: A difficult task when you consider the cornea is only about half a millimeter thick. That's why Dr. Wang uses this laser to perform the surgery.
Dr. Ming Wang: It improve the accuracy of the procedure and the safety of the procedure.
Jennifer Mathews: Steve had the procedure on his left eye one month ago.
Steve Howell: I'm already seeing a difference right now, and that's just phenomenal just to be able to see that.
Jennifer Mathews: Now, when he looks at a street sign, he can actually read it.
This is Jennifer Mathews reporting.
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