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Basketball Player Recovers Vision (Chicago Tribune, Nov. 28)
Tyler McKinney wondered 10 months ago if he would ever see out of his right eye again, let alone play basketball at Creighton University. The Creighton senior was in excruciating pain from an amoeba infection that had invaded his eye and required two cornea transplants. Now, sooner than anyone but perhaps McKinney thought, he is back with the Bluejays and starting at point guard. McKinney laid in a darkened hospital room in Iowa City for a week in January of 2004, receiving eye drops every 20 minutes, day and night. He showed no improvement and underwent his first cornea transplant March 4. But not all of the amoeba was out of the eye, and a second transplant was done April 1. "It's remarkable he can play this year," said Dr. John Sutphin, a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics surgeon who performed the transplants. "Ordinarily, we have people sit out a year after surgery before we let them go back to the court. I'm surprised he's able to play, and I'm glad for him." Sutphin, who treats patients from Iowa and surrounding states, said he sees 15 to 20 patients a year with amoeba infections, but only four or five require surgery. The article appeared in the BILLINGS (Mont.) GAZETTE, and also in the ALLENTOWN (Pa.) MORNING CALL, CASPER (Wyo.) STAR TRIBUNE, FREMONT (Neb.) TRIBUNE, MIAMI HERALD, LOS ANGELES TIMES, and several other newspapers.
source: http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/cs-041
