In a first, a transplanted human eye stayed alive

Surgeons had transplanted corneas for decades, but the eye as a whole, retina, optic nerve, and all, was considered untransplantable because the nerve does not reconnect to the brain. A severely injured lineman became the first person to receive one anyway, alongside a partial face transplant.

A team at NYU Langone Health led by Eduardo Rodriguez and Daniel Ceradini performed a 21-hour operation combining a partial face transplant with a whole-eye transplant in a man blinded and disfigured by a high-voltage electrical accident. Imaging after surgery showed blood flowing through the transplanted eye's retina, something no prior eye transplant attempt had achieved.

The eye never restored sight. The optic nerve, severed in the injury, did not regrow a working connection to the brain, so the patient still cannot see from that side. But the retina showed unexpected signs of activity on follow-up testing, and the case gave eye surgeons their first real human data on how long a transplanted eye can stay alive.

A living eye, still blind, still historic.