Blitz victim sees again - after 66 years

By Jayne Warren - 25/04/2008

John Gray, now in his eighties, was badly injured during the Luftwaffe's bombing raid on Clydeside and told he would never again see through his right eye. But when he started to go blind in his left eye as well, specialists decided to see if there was anything they could do about the old wartime wound. Incredibly, an eye surgeon at Glasgow's Southern General replaced the scarred lens, and now Mr Gray can see through the eye he has not used in six decades - and is even sufficiently sighted to sit a driving test.

John lost the sight in his right eye back in 1941, when he was on duty, aged 20, as a firewatcher. The air raid sirens sounded, and as the night drew on he watched as the German Luftwaffe flew overhead on their way to drop thousands of tonnes of explosives on Clydeside. That attack was to be the most devastating bombing raid the Germans were to carry out in Glasgow - and it was the last thing John remembered for several days.

The two-day raid claimed 1,200 lives, and John was nearly one of them. Part of the German strategy was to drop landmines to stop the emergency services getting to the scene of destruction, and one of them landed right on top of the cold store John was in. Eight hours later he was pulled from the rubble suffering from terrible injuries - he was the only survivor. He recalled: "We just heard some glass shattering and that was the last thing I heard until I came to in the Victoria Infirmary with my leg stretched out in plaster and a big bandage on my head. It was the injury to my head which took the sight away from my right eye."

Doctors told him he'd never see through that eye again - but John remained stoical. He said: "It never bothered me and I just kept going. It looked normal and you would never have known it was blind." John went on to work as a poultry wholesaler, got married and had two daughters, now both in their 50s.

As the years went by a friend's son, Frank Munro, qualified as an optometrist and began to see John for check-ups. Then, as optometry became more advanced, Frank was able to take a look at John's old war wound - and realised that the retina was healthy, and all the damage was to the lens.

But it was too risky to attempt an operation, as the part of John's brain that 'saw' through that eye hadn't been used for decades and might have become redundant. So Frank told John it would be better to keep that eye as a 'spare' - hopefully he'd never need to use it.

 

But in 2007, a 'spare' eye was exactly what John needed. He had developed a severe form of Macular Degeneration in his remaining healthy left eye and there was little the specialists could do. Frank had to break the news to him that he would gradually lose sight in his left eye until he was totally blind. John said: "I was down in the dumps when the sight went and I could no longer read my papers, write or watch the television."

Finally Frank decided to seek the help of a specialist from the Southern General Hospital. Eye surgeon Dr Ian Bryce removed John's scar tissue and inserted a new artificial lens - something not possible 60 years ago. But the question remained - would John's brain remember how to see through his right eye? It took a few weeks, but to everyone's relief John began to see again. At first it was blurred but now John's vision is good enough to read small print.

John now has his first set of bifocal spectacles with a lens in both the left and the right eye - and is delighted. He says both his optometrist and his surgeon deserve a knighthood. "I couldn't be more pleased," he declared. "I've got vision and I can read to a certain extent".

Frank Munro and Dr Bryce are happy to have helped - but admit that it's not every day they can restore sight to an eye that hasn't been used since 1941.