Victrectomy Recovery Device

Dick's friend underwent eye surgery last year and had mentioned to him that her recovery was making her miserable.

"I hung up the phone and went into my shop to try and come up with something to help her," he says. "The next day I took a device over to her house. It was crude compared to the changes I've made since, but she thought it was great. Before this, she was using a detractable ironing board to rest her head on."

He's recently developed five prototype medical devices for helping people recover from this specific eye surgery called a vitrectomy. The surgery is conducted on patients who have a condition called a macular hole. The macula is the area of the retina that provides the best vision for reading and fine detail. A macular hole can develop as a result of aging, trauma or in extremely nearsighted people.

A vitrectomy may be used to close the macular hole, and a gas or oil bubble is used to seal the hole while it heals. This means that during the entire recovery, the patients must remain horizontally face down.

The first of his prototypes was designed so his friend could rest her head on a padded center. He made other devices to help her in other activities, such as walking, eating, sleeping and watching TV.

After she recovered from a second eye surgery, Dick's friend was so enthused about the devices he'd developed for her that she took pictures of them to some doctors.

They called Dick to alert him that there is a need for devices such as the ones he'd produced. According to them, thousands of vitrectomies are being performed, and the procedure is gaining in popularity. "After I heard what a big need there is for these devices," he says, "I decided to pursue them further. They're needed - the people in these positions are suffering."

Dick has since received provisional U.S. patents on all four main devices and the one interchangeable piece to his invention.

He and his wife, Lois, took the prototypes to an inventor's show near Pittsburgh. There they met a doctor who took interest in Dick's devices, but for reasons other than vitrectomy recovery.

He pointed out that patients with Huntington's or Parkinson's diseases also could benefit from them, using the head rest to steady or hold up the head.

He told The Courier in a recent interview that he'd "like to see if someone would be interested in buying the rights. There are probably thousands of people who really need something like this."

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