Joseph Vellone didn”™t like what end-stage age-related macular degeneration had done to deprive him not only of good vision but of the good things in life. Yet it seemed he would have to live with those losses as one of 15 million Americans progressively disabled by that eye disease. Vellone had lived with the mounting impairments for about 10 years.
There were the photos of his great-grandchildren whose faces he could not see. There were the neighbors in Somers whom he walked by without saying hello because the blind spots in his central vision kept him from recognizing them. A football fan, the 76-year-old retired business owner could no longer watch his beloved New York Jets on television.
“Football is his favorite thing to watch,” said his wife and designated driver, Ida Vellone, on the patio of their home in Somers, “but he couldn”™t follow the ball.”
He could no longer drive a car. “That was really hard to take,” said Vellone, the former owner of A to Z Roofing and Waterproofing in Mount Vernon. “It”™s like you lost your freedom.”
“Sometimes we”™d be driving and I”™d think, God, I”™d give anything to be able to see. I”™d pay anything.”
The injections given by his eye specialist in Mount Kisco did not help as the disease progressed. “I told her, ”˜If you ever come up with something that can help me, please let me know,”™” said Vellone.
Last year, that help arrived in Westchester County in the form of a pea-sized telescope. Invented by an Israeli engineer and developed and marketed by VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies in Saratoga, Calif., the innovative device was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about three years ago. Implanted in a patient”™s eye, the telescope magnifies objects normally seen in one”™s straight-ahead vision and projects images onto the healthy retina in the back of the eye.
On Dec. 26, Dr. Gerald Zaidman, a surgeon with an international reputation for his work in pediatric corneal transplants and director of the ophthalmology department at Westchester Medical Center, implanted the telescope in Vellone”™s left eye in an outpatient procedure of less than one hour. To Vellone, the surgeon gave a gift of partial vision that continues to improve with time and visual therapy.
“Dr. Zaidman has told us there could be change in his eye up to two years after the procedure,” said Ida Vellone. “Every time they take out a stitch” from the implant, “his vision improves.”
Zaidman said Vellone has shown “spectacular improvement” since the surgery. He is one of three patients with irreversible macular degeneration to receive the implants in Valhalla.
“There”™s not a lot of eye doctors who have been trained in the procedure,” Zaidman said. He is one of only two doctors in New York who perform the procedure, and two other physicians in the state are being credentialed to do the implants, he said. About 100 ophthalmologists nationwide have been trained in the procedure. No doctors in Connecticut currently provide the treatment, which follows a series of medical and vision evaluations of prospective patients required in VisionCare”™s rigorous CentraSight treatment program.
For Vellone, that process started last July, three months after his eye specialist told him about the novel implant surgery started at Westchester Medical Center. “It just seemed to take an awful long time,” his wife said.
The CentraSight program is offered only to patients at least 75 years old, though Zaidman said the company is considering lowering the cutoff age to 65 or 70. Vellone turned 75 last year, a birthday the retiree might have welcomed more than most as it qualified him for the new program. Vellone also never had cataract surgery and had been off drug injections for the disease for more than six months, both of which are required for implant candidates, Zaidman said.
“My feeling was that I can”™t see very much out of this eye anyway,” said Vellone, “so what have I got to lose?”
Zaidman said the treatment requires a long period of visual rehabilitation both before and after surgery. “I like to tell the patients that this is kind of the same thing as if you have an artificial hip or an artificial knee,” he said. “That”™s a very difficult concept for some because a lot of patients have very high, unrealistic expectations” of having their vision and abilities fully restored.
“You”™re not going to be catching passes for the New York Jets and you”™re not going to be driving your car,” Zaidman said.
For Vellone, watching the pros catch passes is good enough. In Florida after his surgery, he watched the Super Bowl in a large, crowded room with his new telescopic aid. “I sat in the back, but I felt that I had the best seat in the house,” he said.
“I think the best part of this implant is that he”™s able to watch football,” said Ida Vellone. “I think that makes a big difference.”
The Vellones said their $63,000 bill from Westchester Medical Center for the surgery was covered by Medicare.
Zaidman noted the telescopic lens implant alone costs $15,000 to $20,000. With Medicare coverage, “Nobody should be denied the procedure for financial reasons,” he said.
