72-Year-Old Hawaiian Woman Gets Bionic Eye: Now, She Can Finally See (Video)

A 72-year-old Hawaiian woman has been blind for the past two years of her life. Yet thanks to the help of a relatively new scientific technology, she's just now beginning to see again.

Doctors at the Hawaii Eye Surgery Center in Honolulu fit the woman for a bionic eye implant on Wednesday, involving a four-hour surgery that has now partially restored her vision.

She can only see shades of gray right now. But in the weeks to come as she recovers, doctors are expecting her vision to grow quite extensively as she'll recall colors, shapes, movements and details in time.

The procedure is quite a rarity, and not right for everyone who may have lost their vision. It works now only on patients who have the hereditary disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which involves severe vision impairment. However, in the future, Dr. Humayun, who developed the first bionic eye, hopes to further develop the technology to assist others suffering from different types of vision loss. The procedure was the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region and took nearly 25 years to develop.

"You don't put the chip on and flip a switch and they see, it takes a while for the brain to start seeing again," added Dr. Humayun, via ABC News.

During the surgery, a microchip implant is paired with special glasses. A camera in the glasses then helps to process the world outside as the microchip transports images through the retina and optic nerve into the brain.

"If you can imagine if somebody is in total darkness and then they are actually able to see down a hallway and see somebody walk in a room, it's just a huge impactful, impact on their life," added lead surgeon Dr. Gregg Komane, via Hawaii News Now. 

Want to learn more about the surgery? Check out this video, courtesy of ABC News: VIDEO.

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