ABCNEWS.com
Dec. 17 — For years, Stevie Wonder has given the world a vision and lyrics
few people with sight could match.
     But now, through the help of medical science, he is seeking to gain the
very sight he has seemed to have persevered through life so well without.
     In an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS’ Barbara Walters, Wonder says he
will undergo testing to see if a microchip can restore his eyesight, and he
talks for the first time about what the possibility of sight means to him.
The interview will air on 20/20 Friday tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
     Wonder is quite hopeful about the possibilities of this surgery and
what they might mean for him and for other blind people.
     “I am optimistic about life, so whether it is that I’ll see … I feel
blessed anyway,” he says. “It’s not about me … now people are aware of this
technology and maybe there will be funds raised … for other people … maybe
someone to be able to see. That’s the exciting part.”
     “It would be a miracle,” Wonder tells Walters.

Intraocular Retinal Prosthesis
Dr. Mark Humayan, who leads the research efforts at John Hopkins University’
s Wilmer Eye Institute and is Wonder’s doctor, says new technology may make
that miracle possible.
     The eye chip, called an intraocular retinal prosthesis, is implanted in
the back of the eye and transmits electronic images to the brain. So far,
the technology has only been tested in operating rooms, where some patients
who were once totally blind have been able to see for about one hour.
     Humayan predicts the technology would be widely available within three
years, allowing millions of Americans who are blind due to retinal damage to
have an option never imagined possible.
     Along with the relative newness of the procedure, there are other
obstacles ahead for Wonder: the best candidates for the surgery are people
with damaged retinas who once had vision, something Wonder has never had.
     But that seems to have little effect on Wonder, who has been blind
since birth, and his forward-looking attitude on life.
     “I think that there is God’s divine plan and as much as it was a
misfortune for me to end up with — being blind I don’t feel that I have
missed out on — too much in life; there are things that I sometimes think I’
ve seen even more vividly than people that can see, and I think that all of
us — whether we see or not — we use a lot of what we hear as our first and
sometimes lasting impressions.”

‘This Is Very Exciting to Us’
It was in November at a church in Detroit that Wonder stunned the
congregation by announcing he was going to undergo the testing. Everyone in
the church went wild, and a flurry of publicity followed. Before long folks
were talking about Wonder driving home from the operation, the musician
jokes to Walters in the interview.
     But Wonder is serious about helping to bring attention to the new
technology, and thus helping to also bring greater fund-raising efforts on
behalf of it.
     “Well we believe that something could be available for patients in the
next two or three years,” says Humayan. “This is very exciting to us,
because it’s not a decade away; it’s not never.”
     As Wonder tells Walters, “People always ask me, ‘If you could see
someone, do you think they would look as you thought they would look?’ And I
said ‘yes’ — I think I have a pretty good, pretty vivid imagination, so I
wouldn’t be too far off.
     “I mean, Barbara,” he says to Walters, “I know that you’re black.”

 Looking Ahead With Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder and his doctor, Mark Humayan of Johns Hopkins University, sat
down with Barbara Walters this week to discuss what would be nothing short
of a miracle. Here’s some of that interview:

BARBARA WALTERS: Stevie, how do you think your life would have been
different had you had sight?
STEVIE WONDER: I think that there is God’s divine plan and as much as it was
a misfortune for me to end up with — being blind I don’t feel that I have
missed out on — too much in life; there are things that I sometimes think I’
ve seen even more vividly than people that can see, and I think that all of
us — whether we see or not — we use a lot of what we hear as our first and
sometimes lasting impressions.

WALTERS: Last month at a church in Detroit you stunned the congregation by
announcing, I’m going to undergo an operation where the unsighted can become
sighted with the help of some sort of chip, and everyone went wild, and
there has been so much publicity about it.

WONDER: I made a remark at the services and it was just taken all the way to
like — Stevie’s gonna see!! He’s driving to get the operation tomorrow! He’s
in the car! He’s driving himself! [SNAPS FINGERS ONCE] Can you see him? He's
moving!!![LAUGHS] OK.

 see attached W E B  L I N K S

John Hopkins Medicine

Intraocular Retinal Prosthesis Group at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns
Hopkins University

Home Page of The Wilmer Eye Institute at The Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine

Marty Tibor
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