Seeing life through new eyes

A few days after she had cataract surgery, Frances Tallman of Cape Girardeau went to lunch at the Cracker Barrel. She glanced down at her bill and saw that she owed $8.11.

What makes that extraordinary is that she wasn't wearing the thick, heavy beige-framed bifocals on which she used to depend.

The retired fashion store owner can now see more clearly without glasses because of a groundbreaking bifocal lens implant.

Tallman and another local woman, Betty Henson, were among the first to receive the bifocal implant from Cape Girardeau ophthalmologist Dr. Charles Cozean.

Cozean is one of the few doctors qualified to transplant bifocal lenses, a procedure that was approved only weeks ago by the FDA.

Cozean said bifocal lens implants are not new. He was involved in the research and development of a bifocal lens implant in the 1980s that was used, though it was not FDA-approved.

Although he was not involved in the research and development of the second generation of bifocal lens implants that recently was approved, Cozean's involvement with the first generation made it possible for him to be among the first ophthalmologists in the country -- and his practice is the only one in Cape Girardeau -- qualified to perform the implants.

Cozean said Tallman just barely qualified for the transplant. Because she is extremely farsighted and had a dense cataract, she was not what he considered an ideal candidate.

"Despite it, it looks like we got her right on the button," Cozean said.

A few days after Tallman, Henson, a retired school administrator, underwent the procedure following a cataract removal.

Both patients have had frequent follow-up visits to follow their healing progress. Cozean said that the day after her surgery, Henson "got up, fixed breakfast, read the paper and drove to the office."

Cozean says Tallman will probably need to use reading glasses occasionally, but will no longer need her bifocals or prescription sunglasses. She won't miss them.

"They were always falling down on my face," she said. "I was constantly pushing them back up."

Tallman said when Cozean first mentioned the possibility of a bifocal implant to her, she turned it down, but changed her mind after her daughter encouraged her to do it.

Now, her vision is clearing up every day and she is able to work in her yard without glasses. She uses nonprescription "readers" that she can buy at any pharmacy.

"My biggest problem is now I put them down when I take them off and I forget where I put them," she said.

Henson said she no longer wears glasses at all.

"It's working out beautifully," she said. "I can see so much sharper now. I can see the leaves on trees now; it was just a blurry tree image before."

Now that the bifocal lens has FDA approval, Cozean said he expects this procedure to become commonplace before long.

"We've been fooling with this for over 10 years, and it works," he said.

For now, it is limited to cataract patients, but Cozean said he believes that in time people who don't want to wear glasses will consider the implants as an alternative to Lasik surgery.

The entire procedure takes about a half-hour. Both Henson and Tallman said they felt no pain.

"Not even a twinge," Tallman said.

Alcon Laboratories, a division of Nestle Inc., trains and approves the ophthalmologists who perform the implants and approves the patients eligible to receive them.

Cozean said he became involved in research and development with Alcon when some of their representatives stopped in Cape Girardeau on their way to St. Louis in the 1980s to visit other doctors. They watched him at work, decided Cozean was the one they wanted to work with and canceled the rest of their trip.

Since then, he has helped Alcon develop eye drops and has worked with them on other procedures. Being involved in research and development, he said, keeps him and his staff on the forefront of what's innovative in the field.

"That's what's exciting about eye surgery," Cozean said. "Doing that is fun. It's beautiful looking into the microscope, plus you get patient satisfaction. It's fun to see what's around the corner. I look forward to going to surgery every morning."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160