Reliving the Power of the Eye

Corneal transplant surgeon Dr. Reuben Rama Aquino of ACES Eye Referral Clinic does an unusual job. He brings donor cornea from a cadaver back to life to a recipient patient who is alive. Yes in many ways, he brings back to life the power of the eye. Without the cornea of your eye, you won’t be seeing what you are supposed to be seeing.

Many people want to sin with their eyes. The Devil is exceptionally good at doing this. One only has to look at the billboards all over the city, the advertisements on television, the prints on newspapers, the images on the internet or watch a movie and sin flows actively in place – advertently or inadvertently, consciously or unconsciously — corrupting the human soul and spirit.

What most of us don’t know is that what causes the eyes to appreciate God’s work, behold His beautiful images and to sin with Satan images is a transparent, dome-shaped clear glass of the eye called the cornea. “The cornea controls two-thirds of the power of the eye,” was how Dr. Aquino described the magnificent function of the cornea.

Dome-shaped, clear tissue.

It is perhaps many don’t know or understand nor can see the cornea that man tends to abuse or sin with his eyes. Just to give a picture of God’s mysterious work — the cornea is the outermost layer of the eye. Because it covers the front of the eye, God specifically shaped the cornea like a dome made from clear or transparent tissue. The cornea functions in two ways. One is that the cornea functions like a window that controls and focuses the entry of light into the eye, contributing 65 to 75 percent or two-thirds of the eye’s focusing power.

When light strikes the cornea, it bends or refracts the incoming light into the lens of the eye. The lens further refocuses that light into the retina at the back of the eye. To see clearly, the cornea and lens must focus light rays precisely on the retina. The retina converts light rays into impulses that are sent through the optic nerves to the brain that then interprets these as images. Did you see that?

The other function of the cornea is to protect the eye from germs, dust and other harmful matter.

Luster and tears.

Although the cornea is a  tissue of the body, it does not contain blood vessels to nourish or protect it against infection. The cornea receives its nourishment from tears and aqueous humor that fills the chamber behind it. “A healthy cornea is a cornea that has luster. It must always be shiny to avoid friction with every blink that you make,” Dr. Aquino said. “Any alteration in the tissues that contribute to the luster of the cornea in the long term reflects how the cornea performs in the refractive component of the eye.” He further clarified, “these are not emotional tears. These are basic tears needed for the eyeball.”

It is also the luster and tears that make the cornea cope very well with injuries and abrasions.  So sensitive is the cornea to injuries that if this is scratched, healthy cells slide over quickly and patch the injury before infection occurs and vision is affected.

You need another cornea.

What causes a person to need corneal transplant is when the cornea can no longer refract light, there is light interference or it is degenerating. A corneal transplant is needed among persons whose vision is impaired because of a damaged cornea while the entire eye is still all right. To put it simply, you don’t need to replace the entire eye when the problem is just with the cornea. “So what we do is look at the overall function of the eye in relation to the cornea,” Dr. Aquino said.

So how do you transplant a cornea? “What we do is replace the thick cornea with a new cornea,” he said. What happens is that the surgeon removes the central portion of the cloudy cornea and replaces it with a clear cornea, usually from a donor or the cornea of a cadaver. A trephine, an instrument like a cookie cutter, is used to remove the cloudy cornea. Depending on the skill of the surgeon and the maneuvers of the surgeon, a transplant can last from 45 minutes to an hour. But then Dr. Aquino cautions, “Preparing the eye for surgery is as important as doing the surgery itself and managing the case because you are altering the shape of the cornea from the cornea of a cadaver.”

Corneal transplants have been known to have high success rates. So people who have transplants are able to have their corneas refract light again.

What is astounding about corneal transplants is its spiritual and scriptural symbolisms. God created corneas with such complexity to see light. But man deliberately darkens his vision by using his eyes to sin. Until corneas are damaged, man does not care if his eyes are sinning. Surgeons use donor corneas from a cadaver (symbolically dead to sin) to restore the vision of people who are alive and capable of sinning. In reliving the power of the eye with corneal transplants, God wants us not to see or be in sin again.