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Pierre-Paul Thomas was born blind. For him, life was reduced to little more than grey shapes that only varied in size and shade. Then, in his mid-sixties, he suffered an accident that would totally change his life…for the better.
Trust me. You won’t see this one coming.
Thomas was born in the 1940s in a small town northwest of Montreal, Canada, and it was soon discovered that he suffered the triple misfortunes of cataracts, damaged optical nerves, and congenital nystagmus — a condition that causes the eyes to move randomly from side to side. But since he hailed from the generation that made lemonade from the lemons life dishes out, Thomas taught himself to “see” with his fingers and held down humble jobs: a bicycle repairman at a shop and a dough kneader at a local bakery.
For 66 years, he navigated life with a white cane jutting out in front of him, sliding it back and forth.
But one day, the senior citizen fell down a stairwell at his apartment building, fracturing the frail bones in his face, including those near his eye sockets. He was immediately rushed to the Montreal General Hospital where a team of surgeons worked to repair the damage.
A few months later, Thomas was being examined by Lucie Lessard, a plastic surgeon at the hospital who’s renowned for her abilities in the arena of micro-suturing. After discussing the plans to heal Thomas’ scalp, she asked the elderly blind man, “Oh, while we’re at it, do you want us to fix your eyes, too?”
Fix his eyes? That wasn’t possible, was it? Thomas was dumbfounded at the mere idea.
But during a two-part surgery, Thomas had the cataracts removed from his eyes, and when he came out of surgery, he was able to see for the first time in his life!
His drab world was transformed into an infinite number of colors. He now knew the difference between “red” and “green.” Snowbanks, which he could only make out as light grey, were now so luminously white that he squinted as they shimmered in the sun. He spent the following months analyzing the world he’d lived in for so long. He stared at tulip blooms, tree buds, and the faces of family members. “It’s like I’m a child all over again,” Thomas exclaimed.
And according to Dr. Dev Cheema, an ophthalmologist at the Montreal General Hospital, Thomas could have had his sight during his childhood! “All we had to do was remove the cataracts and he was able to see,” said the doctor.
Think about that for just a moment. A man spent his entire life blind because he couldn’t imagine being able to see. He never investigated what could have been done to change his situation or solve his problem. He simply tolerated being blind.
What are you unnecessarily tolerating?
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Topics Illustrated Include:
Accident
Blind
Complacency
Doctor
Elderly
Health
Problem
Transformation
Waste
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
