Skip to main content

Member News – Wilmer Eye Institute – Johns Hopkins

2025-01-21 07:42:07

Uniquely Positioned to Tackle the Most Challenging Cases

By age 18, Henry Harten was legally blind, the result of a rare genetic disorder. Meet Henry and the team whose careful collaboration allowed him to see the world clearly for the first time.

Victor Harten’s perfect towheaded baby boy, Henry, was little more than a year old when a Seattle neurologist diagnosed him with Hurler syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by an enzyme deficiency that allows large sugar molecules to build up in all the tissues of the body, causing catastrophic damage and, if untreated, early death.

“After crying for a week, I got on the phone and learned we could arrest his disease with a stem cell transplant,” Victor says. Henry underwent the stem cell transplant — a nine-month process. Afterward, Victor and Henry moved back to Victor’s home state of Texas to be near family.

Henry, now 21 years old, is the spunky veteran of some 40 surgeries to correct the damage to his joints and spine wrought by Hurler’s during his first year of life. But one of the things that bothered him most was yet another common symptom of the disease — cloudy corneas.

Read more

More news

News from our member JEC Eye Hospitals & Clinics

JEC Eye Hospitals & Clinics would like to invite all members of the World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH) to join the 5th JEC International Meeting (JECIM) 2025. As the […]

News from our member L V Prasad Eye Institute

 A ‘Patient First’ New Year  2024 is winding down–and what a year it has been! It is easy to lose our heads in the here-and-now, missing some of the big […]

WAEH Call for Projects 2025

Call for Projects 2025Each year 2 to 3 projects are funded by the WAEH to help shape and improve ophthalmic care on a global scale. Examples of projects: And many more […]

18th Annual WAEH Meeting: The Recap!

WAEH 18th Annual Meeting Thank you! WAEH 18th Annual Meeting Visit to the Aier Eye Hospital and the Member Meeting Friday – November 9, 2024 Board Meeting SummaryDuring the Board Meeting, […]

AI system based on Moorfields model tackles eye health inequalities in outback Australia

A mobile retinal camera with fully integrated artificial intelligence (AI) is being deployed in remote Western Australia in an effort to prevent rural and Indigenous Australians going blind from Diabetic […]