John, I don't mean to start trouble over this but it sounds like a bit of a
hoax. For starters, anyone getting meningitis back then I'd think would
surely have died. Also from being blind so long, studies have shown that the
brain is the problem not the eyes. You see the brain having never had to
recognize images doesn't put them together right. Some sight is hard wired
in while some is learned. hth. Kerri.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Schwery" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 5:34 PM
Subject: Fw: OBITUARIES SHIRLEY JENNINGS, ARTIST AND SCULPTOR; BLIND MAN
BECAME A VISIONARY
> I am forwarding this from the blind-x because of our discussion on
> healing. I am presenting this as it is, and I don't have a particular
opinion.
>
>
>
> > >
> > > > The Express
> > > > Thursday, November 13, 2003
> > > >
> > > > OBITUARIES SHIRLEY JENNINGS, ARTIST AND SCULPTOR; BLIND MAN BECAME A
> > > VISIONARY
> > > >
> > > > By PETER SHERIDAN
> > > >
> > > > AS the doctors unwrapped his bandaged eyes, allowing Shirley
Jennings to
> > > see after 50 years of blindness, it should have been a joyous moment
but
> >the
> > > nightmare was just beginning.
> > > >
> > > > Assaulted by unfamiliar images, his comfortable world of darkness
was
> > > plunged into terrifying light.
> > > >
> > > > A walk down the street became a journey into dread, jumping at
strange
> > > shadows, tripping over kerbs and falling up stairs. Facial expressions
> >were
> > > incomprehensible. When he returned to work as a masseur, the sight of
> >bodies
> > > beneath his hands disgusted him.
> > > >
> > > > He was the world's only longterm blind person to survive the rare
> > > restoration of sight. There have been only 20 documented cases in the
past
> > > 300 years of sight being restored after long-term blindness - and all
but
> > > Jennings died of stress-related illness soon after their corrective
> >surgery.
> > > >
> > > > He too found his world turned upside down by the questionable gift
of
> > > vision. His ordeal was told by psychologist Dr Oliver Sacks in his
book An
> > > Anthropologist On Mars and inspired the 1999 movie At First Sight,
which
> > > starred Val Kilmer as Shirley and Mira Sorvino as his wife Barbara.
> > > >
> > > > "He went from being a welladjusted blind person to being a
maladjusted
> > > seeing person, " recalls Barbara, 56. "Walking was suddenly more
difficult
> > > because he'd look down and see grass and freak. He didn't know what it
was
> > > He couldn't even recognise a tree.
> > > >
> > > > He knew the top and bottom separately: the trunk, the leaves.
> > > >
> > > > It took him six months to put a tree together. "He could see an
apple
> >and
> > > an orange but couldn't tell them apart without touching them. All his
> >visual
> > > memory was gone. It was much easier to be blind."
> > > >
> > > > Overwhelmed by vision and plunged into sickness, he too almost died.
His
> > > bittersweet restored sight began to fade and he slid back into
darkness.
> >Yet
> > > he rallied to not only survive but even recovered his sight enough to
> >become
> > > an artist and sculptor, selling his paintings for up to GBP 1,500 and
> > > finally making peace with the visible world.
> > > >
> > > > Shirley Jennings was born in a farm cabin in the Blue Ridge
Mountains of
> > > Virginia in 1940. At three he contracted polio, meningitis and cat
scratch
> > > fever and fell into a coma. He survived but was paralysed from the
waist
> > > down.
> > > >
> > > > With his mother Pearl's determined care, he learned to walk and talk
> >again
> > > but doctors claimed that he would be permanently blind from retinitis
> > > pigmentosa.
> > > >
> > > > At six he went to the state institution for the deaf and blind.
> > > >
> > > > He later studied massage therapy and found work as a masseur at a
YMCA
> > > near Atlanta, Georgia.
> > > >
> > > > There he met Barbara at a cat show but after a few dates she moved
to
> > > Vermont and married.
> > > >
> > > > When she returned in 1988 a divorcee, she began dating Jennings
again.
> > > >
> > > > "Barbara talked me into seeing a doctor, who thought I could
possibly
> > > regain my sight, " he said.
> > > >
> > > > "I decided I had nothing to lose."
> > > >
> > > > Tests concluded that he had thick cataracts over his eyes but that
his
> > > retinas were intact.
> > > >
> > > > "The day after the operation I could take my patch off and read the
> >first
> > > three lines on an eye chart, " he said. "But that was a frightening
month.
> > > Things looked different and there was too much information at once."
> > > >
> > > > Between surgery to restore his right eye in 1991 and a second
procedure
> >to
> > > restore his left eye, he married Barbara. But the sensory overload
took
> >its
> > > toll. "I became really ill and had to give up my job, " he said.
> > > >
> > > > Much of his restored sight vanished again because of lack of oxygen.
> > > Belated oxygen therapy damaged his lungs and he developed heart
failure.
> > > >
> > > > "He almost died again, " says Barbara. "He became very ill with
lobar
> > > pneumonia and was given a slim chance of survival. He was on oxygen
for
> > > almost two years."
> > > >
> > > > Yet he astounded physicians, regaining his health and much of his
lost
> > > vision to become an artist. MGM bought the movie rights to his story,
> >which
> > > was transformed into the angst-laden romance At First Sight. "Val
Kilmer
> >got
> > > $ 9million and Mira Sorvino got $ 3million, " said Jennings. "We got $
> > > 100,000. We feel like we deserved more but we didn't know how to go
about
> > > it. How do you put a price on your life?"
> > > >
> > > > Shirley Jennings, born Virginia, May 30, 1940. Died Georgia, October
26,
> > > 2003, aged 63.
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
>
> John
>
> James Watt is so dense he absorbs neutrinos.<*>
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