Retired Surgeon General On The Increasing Prevalence of Blindness

When I retired as Acting Surgeon General of the United States Army, I promised myself that I would dedicate my time to finding a solution for the growing blindness epidemic in our country. Senator Daniel Inouye, who served our Nation in World War II, brought the true weight of vision loss to my attention years ago when he challenged the three military medical departments by asking: “What are you doing for our blinded troopers?” It was still early in our Global War on Terror—but I knew he was trying to warn us about a serious battle we would be waging at home.

I worked with our data analysts and we discovered that 10-13% of all combat injuries involve the eye, perhaps as minor as a cut eyelid or as severe as removal of one or both eyes. Wow, suppose it is the worst case…what do we do for them? In my humble opinion—not much. We suggest that they learn Braille. How many adults learn a foreign language? No surprise that only 10% of adults who lose sight, learn Braille. We give them a white cane to assist with getting around. They may be offered a Guide Dog—but there are only about 6,000 dogs in service to the visually impaired. Certainly not a solution for the tens of thousands of veterans who need assistance following vision loss.

The truth is that our veterans can lose their vision for a number of reasons. I learned about diabetic retinopathy, now the leading cause of vision loss in America. Also macular degeneration, glaucoma and a myriad of other diseases traditionally associated with aging that affect our older veteran population. Research has shown that individuals with traumatic brain injuries also experience vision changes and early onset of other eye diseases.

The Centers for Disease Control lists vision loss as one of the top ten disabilities in America, though very few recognize this. But if you pause for a moment and think about your friends and family, most of us personally know someone who is struggling because of vision loss. To make things worse, there is also a deep stigma associated with visual impairments—people assume that if you don’t see well, your brain does not work well. Who wants to be treated like that? No wonder those with vision loss have an increased risk of depression and anxiety, sky-high unemployment and poverty rates!

However, technology is starting to step into this breech. At first, the only thing offered was the ability to have text read out loud to you—which, in all fairness, was a step forward from the tradition of needing to find a volunteer to do that. But now we are starting to see revolutionary leaps in assistive technology that can actually restore vision, without the need for surgery.

This was most evident to me when I came across a new breakthrough called eSight, electronic glasses that enable sight for individuals living with legal blindness—it is the single most impressive device I have seen since my mission to advocate for the legally blind began in 2004. eSight was most recently recognized in TIME Magazine as one of the best inventions of 2017.

After learning about eSight, I went to Boston to watch individuals experience these electronic glasses for the first time. One gentleman, whose vision had been declining rapidly for the past decade, walked into the eSight Experience room holding onto a friend’s elbow. After wearing eSight for just a few minutes, he started working with the controls on the device and said “there’s a window in this room.” I was amazed as he asked to get closer to the window. I offered my arm but he quickly declined, saying, “I would like to take myself there.” Then, using eSight, he independently maneuvered through a conference room packed with furniture and people. He stood in front of the window for a few minutes and then said, “May I describe the Boston skyline to you?” The hair on my body stood at attention as he described what he could see. At that moment, I knew that we had made an incredible leap in supporting the dreams of those living with vision loss.

Will you help me get the word out to those who need this technology? Please tell those you know about http://www.makeblindnesshistory.com !