Randolph Man Has Revolutionary Lens Implant

Randolph Man Has Revolutionary Lens Implant

Dominic and Karol Delia were happy to be home with two of their children, Mackenzie and Mikaela Tuesday. (Herald photo / Robert Eddy)

Wearing sunglasses is the thrill of a lifetime for Randolph resident Dominic Delia. They’re cool, and he’s never been able to wear them before because of his thick glasses.

However, in February his severe nearsightedness was corrected with permanent lenses implanted into his eyes.

Delia was one of two Vermonters to be the first ever to receive the Verisyse implantable lens for nearsightedness, which was just approved by the FDA last September. Dr Jack Singer of Randolph is the only eye surgeon in Vermont and New Hampshire trained to implant the Verisyse lens, which has been available in Europe for 18 years.

"I’d worn thick glasses since age 8, and by the time I was 14 I was blind as a bat," Delia said. "I tried contact lenses once but was unable to put anything—let alone my finger—in my eye."

Hearing about the implant procedure last fall, Delia called the office for a screening and learned he was a good candidate, as he was between the ages of 21 and 50, very nearsighted, and had astigmatism in both eyes.

"I had a lot of confidence in Dr Singer, who is a very picky surgeon with an excellent reputation. I went in for the procedure and the nurses at Gifford were wonderful, I felt like I had one-on-one attention," Delia said.

"I felt no pain, just a bit of discomfort in the beginning of the procedure, and when I sat up from the table I had 20/15 vision without my glasses. It was great."

Surgical Option

"This is an exciting option, particularly for people with thick glasses and corneas too thin for Lasik surgery," Dr Singer said this week.

"Studies have demonstrated that the implantable lens is 50% more accurate than Lasik and also provides superior quality of vision that is crisper, brighter and clearer."

The surgical procedure is reversible, since the Verisyse lens can be removed from the eye. The tiny lens is slipped through a small incision and clipped to the iris without reshaping or removing anything.

Like glasses or contact lenses, the implantable lens comes in different powers according to one’s vision needs.

"The future of vision correction lies with lens implants," said Singer, who has trained thousands of surgeons world-wide on the techniques he developed on cataract, lens implant and vision correction surgery in Vermont. "They are more predictable and don’t alter the natural shape of the cornea," Dr Singer said.

Life Without Glasses

Delia is now trying to get used to going without his glasses. He served in the Army from 1980-1984, but when he got out he really wanted to be a Vermont State Trooper, but couldn’t get an interview because he wore glasses.

He served in the Vermont National Guard until 2000 and now works at Vermont Technical College as a security officer." Delia said his wife, Karol, an 18-year veteran of the Vermont National Guard, could barely recognize him when she arrived home last week on a two-week leave from a deployment in Kuwait. But she’s getting used to it.

"Before this surgery I couldn’t have recognized my wife if she was standing 12 feet from me and I didn’t have my glasses on," Delia said. "This is a whole new world. I’m free from the reins of my glasses and I am finding I have a fetish for sunglasses ˆ I have four pairs now!"

By Gus Howe Johnson