The Hams Who
Save Sight
A cornea is needed to prevent a
child's blindness, but where can one be
found? These amateur radio operators
can be relied on for the answer
By CHARLES and BONNIE REMSBERG
kjf f
r Joe Kaniuk, one of the
"' Eyeball Network's 25
volunteers, checks with
local eye bank for emergencies.
Last march, a two-year-old girl in
I Oklahoma City lived for hours in
a terrible shadow.
Her eye had accidentally brushed against the
hot tip of her father's cigarette. Unless surgeons
could remove the damaged -tissue and transplant
a fresh cornea within the next few hours, the
stricken youngster would lose vision in her in
jured eye.
The eye bank nearest her home had no cornea
available. No interoffice communication exists
among the 60-some eye banks scattered across
the U. S. Time could easily run out before the
costly chore of tracking down an eye in another
city could be completed by telephone.
Thanks to a remarkable group of amateur
radio operators, however, a cornea was found
within hours, and the child's sight was saved.
The "hams," calling themselves the "Eyeball
Network," form the first and most efficient link
between U. S. eye banks. Their dramatic dedi
cation could someday save you or your children
from blindness in the wake of sudden tragedy.
The network's 25 volunteer members in 16
cities are notified at any hour by their local eye
banks of emergency needs or of surplus corneas.
Then, twice daily, at 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. (CDT),
the hams go on the air at 3970 and 3963 kilo
cycles to exchange information.
When the Oklahoma child was injured, Travis
Harris, that city's network representative, broad
cast the girl's plight during the morning roll
call. No network members knew of extra corneas
at that time, but each reported the emergency
to the nearest bank.
Two hours later, an elderly Chicago eye donor
died. His eyes were surgically removed for use
by the eye bank of the Illinois Society for the
Prevention of Blindness. Because there were no
known emergencies in Illinois, the bank turned
to the case from Oklahoma, reported that morn
ing by one of the Chicago area hams, Joe Kaniuk
of suburban Morton Grove.
. Now because of the hams' relay, one of the
donor's eyes was specially packaged and flown
to Oklahoma City to aid the little girl.
Since the network was organized in December,
1962, some 35 similar emergencies have been met.
In addition, the hams have helped secure 25 "sur
plus" corneas for use in planned operattons.
"If it hadn't been for the 'Eyeball Network,' "
says Corinne Cloppas of the Illinois Society for
the Prevention of Blindness, "more than one per
son would have been condemned to blindness."
Eye injuries must be corrected swiftly, or
irreparable complications will develop. Also a
donor's eyes must be utilized within 36 to 48
hours of his death if corneal transplants are to
be effective. Time and again, the hams' ability
to establish simultaneous contact with- a variety
of cities has proved the best means of bringing
together persons threatened with blindness and
the eyes of persons who wished them to'be use
ful after death.
Recently we listened to a network roll call
over Joe Kaniuk's ham equipment and heard
factory owner Ted Hunter of Iowa City tell how
he and a fellow ham, Dr. Alson Braley, had con-,
ceived the idea.
"Doc Braley is the head cf the ophthalmalogy
department at the University of Iowa," Hunter
explained. "Some years ago, a patient already
blind in one eye lost sight in his second eye be
cause no cornea was available for a transplant.
It was a terrible thing, and it haunted both of us.
"We knew some inexpensive system of com
munications was needed between eye banks. One
bank might need an eye desperately while an
other would have one going to waste and not
know of the other's need. What was fast and
free? well, ham radio was the answer."
Hunter and Braley began discussing the net
with hams in areas where banks were located.
Kaniuk heard their repeated calls about a "new
way to help people see" as he was listening to
his set in bed one night. Others listened, too, and
soon the network began taking shape.
One man in Iowa needed a fast transplant be
cause his cornea had ruptured. The emergency
call went out at 7 a.m. By 10, a cornea was on
its way to his doctor.
In Kansas, a girl's cornea was diseased and
threatening to burst As she was rushed to a
hospital, the net's amazingly swift relay located
a donated eye so that surgeons could operate be
fore her sight blacked out.
TP YOU WANT to get a spine-tingling Bensation,
JL just be a network ham meeting one of these
people you've helped," Ted Hunter told us. "It's -hard
to describe how it feels when someone looks
at you and says, 'You have saved my sight.' "
For some of the hams, the thanks of a patient
carries special impact. Travis Harris, for ex
ample, is himself totally blind.
"I was 10 years old when my eyes were dam
aged in a stove explosion at school," he told us
over the air. "I could still see light for 25 years.
Then glaucoma developed and I became blind.
"When I was first hurt, a corneal transplant
might have saved my sight. Unfortunately, the
technique hadn't been devised yet. But now that
it has, one of the biggest satisfactions I get out '
of life is helping others see again."
That sums up the attitude of all the hams on
the "Eyeball Network." Some West Coast hams
must rise before 5 a.m. to make roll call; others
adjust social and business schedules to accommo
date the regular broadcasts. Yet in talking to
many of them we didn't hear these inconven
iences mentioned once.
All referred only to their "good fortune" in
being able to use a hobby to perform a needed
public service.
Family Weekly, November 3, IS6J 1 1