Mother Regains Sight With Gift Of Son’s Cornea Grieving For Death Of Son, Woman Comforted ‘That He’s With Her’

Blinking in the rediscovered glare of sunlight, Secundina Curtinez celebrated her dead son’s final gift Thursday as surgeons removed the bandages around her newly transplanted cornea.

“Yes, yes, yes, doctor,” she said in Spanish, crying and kissing surgeon Peter Hersh’s hand.

A week after her 28-year-old son Ivan’s unexpected death from a brain aneurysm, doctors successfully transplanted his cornea into his mother’s left eye.

As the bandages were peeled back, Curtinez saw her daughter, Ruth Nebiar, her doctor and about 20 television cameras pointed at her.

“She sees everybody,” Nebiar said, putting her hand to her mouth.

“It’s a miracle. It’s a gift of God.”

Curtinez could recognize people, count fingers and read the largest letters on an eye chart, a day after the transplant surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center. It will take up to four months to know how much of her sight will return, doctors said.

The 67-year-old mother of nine - Ivan was the youngest - suffered from glaucoma, a chronic disease that scarred her corneas, the clear part of the eye that covers the iris and pupil and helps focus light. She went completely blind in November.

Although Curtinez had no health insurance and couldn’t afford the $10,000 operation, Dr. Hersh performed the surgery for free after being moved by her plight.

And while she grieves for her son, the gift of his sight has given her comfort, Nebiar said.

“She thinks that he’s with her,” Nebiar said. “She’s happy she got his eyes.”