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SightLife, partners perform more than 20,000 corneal transplantations in 2014

Monty Montoya discusses SightLife’s success over the past year and the organization’s aspirations to increase corneal transplants worldwide.

Issue: March 25, 2015

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WAILEA, Hawaii — SightLife and its global partners provided more than 20,000 corneal transplants across the globe in 2014, while continuing to aspire to increase procedures performed worldwide to prevent blindness, Monty Montoya, president and CEO of SightLife, told Healio.com/OSN at Hawaiian Eye 2015.

Montoya shared SightLife’s accomplishments with the story of a 9-year old girl who now has restored vision in both eyes after the organization provided programs and training in India last year.

“At 4 years of age, she was bilaterally blinded by an infection,” Montoya said. “But because of corneal transplantation, she’s able to see, she’s back in school, and she’s an empowered young woman who’s going to do great things in this world because she’s had the ability to see the world through her new eyes.”

With approximately 10 million people affected by corneal blindness worldwide, SightLife has set a goal of spreading corneal transplants globally to 1 million people per year by 2040, Montoya said.

He attributed the organization’s success to its philanthropic sponsors, such as Abbott Medical Optics, Alcon, Allergan and Bausch + Lomb, as well as its cornea surgeons. With this partnership, SightLife established several courses across India in 2014, increasing surgeons’ ability to perform all types of transplantation globally.

“[SightLife’s cornea surgeons] give up their time to train others, and they actually give up their money to financially support and sponsor directly the work that SightLife is doing,” Montoya said. “And they encourage their patients to support that as well.”

The organization looks forward to the progression of making corneal transplants available worldwide, while celebrating its accomplishments of the past year.

“We had hundreds of thousands of dollars come in [in 2014] to further the mission to eliminate corneal blindness,” Montoya said. “So we’re very thankful. We’re excited to see some big things happen in 2015.” – by Kristie L. Kahl and David W. Mullin