South London Memories: Grandfather reminisces on being one of the first cataract patients at The Thomas Hospital in the 1950’s

Last week marked the 70th anniversary of the first eye cataract operation at St Thomas’ Hospital. The procedure, to remove a cloudy biological lens and replace it with a Perspex one, was devised by St Thomas’ surgeon Harold Ridley, later knighted for his work. Here TOBY PORTER tells the story.

A grandfather has recalled what it was like to be one of the first people to have modern cataract surgery at St Thomas’ Hospital in the 1950s.

Saturday, February 8 marked the 70th anniversary of the first successful lens implant operation, which was developed by Sir Harold at St Thomas’ Hospital.

His medical breakthrough has saved the sight of more than 200 million people across the world – including, eventually, Sir Harold himself.

Jeffrey Wright, 80, was one of the first patients to be operated on by Sir Harold in 1956 when he was 16.

He accidentally pierced his right eye while playing darts. As a result, he developed cataracts, a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision.

Jeffrey, a retired electrical engineer, said: “Initially I was told by my local hospital that I’d never be able to see with my right eye. But my mum refused to accept that.

“We were eventually referred to Sir Harold Ridley at St Thomas’. What he was doing wasn’t widely known about then but he said he could help me.

“By then the lens in my eye had gone opaque and my vision had started to get worse. Once my lens had been removed and the new one was inserted my vision was brilliant – and it stayed that way for 30 years.”

By 1986, Jeffrey’s artificial lens had started to rub against his cornea so it was removed at St Thomas’ and he was given contact lenses and a corneal graft.

He said: “The team was amazed that the lens Sir Harold Ridley put in was still there. I’ve done very well with my sight for so long.

“He was a brilliant surgeon. I would have completely lost my vision in my right eye without him. It was great my mum pushed for treatment because my life could have been very different without vision in one eye.

“Sir Harold was a pioneer – now so many people have the operation each day thanks to what he discovered.”

Sir Harold made his medical breakthrough after treating a Spitfire pilot who had Perspex in his eye from the shattered hood of his aircraft.

The surgeon noticed that, unlike most foreign bodies which caused swelling, the eye did not reject Perspex. He helped make an artificial lens made of Perspex to replace those in eyes which became clouded by cataracts.

Previously people with cataracts had the cloudy lens of the eye surgically removed and then needed to wear powerful thick glasses. His invention was a radical concept, and was initially resisted by much of the medical profession.

But by the 1980s it had become a routine procedure.

It involved a 1cm incision, stitches and a two-week recovery but it now requires an incision of just 2mm to insert a lens which unfolds within the eye, no stitches and a same-day discharge.

Some patients may even have no need to wear glasses afterwards.

About 350,000 cataract operations are performed annually in the UK and St Thomas’ Hospital does more than 2,100, sometimes 10 a day, each taking 15 to 30 minutes.

Nigel Davies, consultant ophthalmologist and head of the eye service at St Thomas’, said: “It’s always an honour to help patients, especially when it comes to saving their sight.

There is something particularly special about doing that in the same place where Sir Harold Ridley invented modern cataract surgery. The eye team at St Thomas’ is very proud to carry on his legacy every day.

“Thanks to the procedure he developed, lives have been transformed across the world.”

New research led by Professor David O’Brart, consultant ophthalmic surgeon, has explored the potential benefits of operating on both eyes at once, which is not routinely offered in the NHS.

Doing this could reduce the length of time in hospital and recovery time, be more convenient for patients and increase the number of operations by more than a third.

The team is due to present the research to commissioners, who will decide if double operations can be done at St Thomas’.

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War helped Harold see the light

Harold Ridley had a stammer as a boy, which he largely managed to cure.

He also met and sat on the lap of Florence Nightingale, a close friend of his mother.

He completed his medical training in 1930 at St Thomas’ Hospital. Subsequently, he worked as a surgeon specialising in ophthalmology at St Thomas’ Hospital and Moorfields Eye Hospital.

During the Second World War, Ridley saw Royal Air Force casualties with eye injuries, including Squadron Leader Gordon ‘Mouse’ Cleaver of 601 Squadron.

Ridley noticed when splinters of acrylic plastic from aircraft cockpit canopies became lodged in their eyes after an explosion, this did not trigger the inflammation which glass did.

He suggested using plastic artificial lenses to treat cataract. He had a lens manufactured using the same material – brand name Perspex made by ICI – and on November 29, 1949 at St Thomas’ Hospital, Harold Ridley achieved the first implant of a lens.

He left one permanently in the eye of a patient for the first time on February 8, 1950.

Ridley pioneered this treatment in the face of prolonged strong opposition from other medics. He worked hard to overcome complications, and had refined his technique by the late 1960s.

The eye lens was finally in 1981 approved as safe and effective and approved for use in the US by the Food and Drug Administration.

Cataract extraction surgery with intralocular lens implantation is now the most common type of eye surgery in the world.

In 1987, Gordon ‘Mouse’ Cleaver, whose injury in 1940 helped Ridley conceive the idea of using an acrylic intralocular lens, had cataract surgery to restore his sight.

Ridley retired from NHS hospital service in 1971.

In 1986, Harold Ridley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was honoured as one of the most outstanding and influential ophthalmologists of the 20th century in April 1999, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery in Seattle, Washington.

He was made a Knight on December 31, 1999 and officially became one at the hands of the Queen in February 2000.

A plaque was installed at St Thomas’ Hospital, in Waterloo to commemorate the first lens implantation in 2001.

The Royal Mail issued a series of commemorative postage stamps to mark medical breakthroughs in 2010.

The 67p one was for the artificial lens implant surgery pioneered by Sir Harold Ridley 1949.

In the 1990s, he underwent bilateral intralocular lens implantation at St Thomas’ Hospital by surgeon Mr Michael Falcon.

Thus Harold Ridley benefitted from his own invention and the operational procedure he had pioneered but what was most pleasing to him was that he had it done in the same hospital where he performed the first one.