Mayo Clinic helps a blind man see his wife for the first time in a decade

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) -- Only fifteen people in the country have received a bionic eye, but you can count one blind man from Forest Lake as another on the list. It has been years since Allen Zderad has been able to see anyone in his family, even his grandson who suffers from the same retinal condition, but now he is seeing life in a whole new way.

"You could see that there was a bright outline, and he could see the outline of his wife's head, and it was the first moment that he could have some perception of his wife's appearance," says Dr. Raymond Iezzi who performed the operation on Zderad.

He has been suffering from retinal degeneration his whole life, a particular type so severe that it is only seen in 1 of 4,000 people.

"With Retinitis pigmentosa patients lose the pixels in the retina, and in only a subset of patients, maybe 8% or 10% of patients with advanced Retinitis pigmentosa they go on to lose their central sight," explains Dr. Iezzi.

Enter Dr. Iezziand his team at Mayo Clinic, who have given Zderad a bionic eye, the first Minnesotan to receive one.

"Well in many ways we have given Mr. Zderad a new sense. Using that technology the visual image comes into the camera it goes into a belt pack that interprets the visual image, and then an antennae in the side of the eye glasses beams in a wireless visual signal," says Dr. Iezzi as he walks us through the process of how the device works.

Zderad does not see life like the normal person, but more of a pixelated world of outlines and shapes.

"I've got to be able to interpret the changes in that shape," says Zderad as he begins to learn how to use his new bionic eyes.

While Zderad says it's crude, the mere ability to see the love of his life was more than he could ask for.

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Mayo Clinic helps a blind man see his wife for the first time in a decade