Thomas Myles
“You guys gave me back my eyes.”
Photo: Anne Fishbein
When Thomas Myles started losing his vision, it was pretty scary. He didn’t have insurance, and he and his wife couldn’t afford the $300-$400 per month premium. But Thomas’s job depended on his vision. He works in the printing industry as a pressman. “My job is my eyes,” he told us. “Without my eyes, I don’t have a job.”
But his vision kept getting worse. “I couldn’t even drive at night.” He couldn’t make the drive from his home in Beaumont to see his grandchildren in Riverside.
“I couldn’t see colors. When I looked at black, I’d see gray. I was running my inks too high, and I had to ask for help.”
A visit to the doctor confirmed that Thomas had cataracts in both eyes. “I was told my eyes were critical for cataract,” he said.
“My wife and I talked, and the good Lord must have put something in her heart. She went to work.”
Helen started looking for help online, and she found the local Lions Club in Beaumont, which referred Thomas to LSH, where he was quickly approved for cataract surgery. “The day I found out, I said, ‘Thank you, Lord,’” Thomas remembers.
After Thomas returned home from his first surgery, he took off the patch over his eye. “It was like someone just turned on a light,” he says. “I could see in 3D.”
Thomas soon had surgery on his other eye. “I can understand what a blind person goes through,” he says. “I could hardly recognize my grandkids, and now I have it all back. You guys gave me back my eyes.”
But Thomas’s problems weren’t over. Back at the print shop, he was surrounded by noise, and he had to keep asking people to repeat themselves.
“When my wife talked to me, especially on my left side, I couldn’t hear. I noticed it was getting worse. When I talked on the phone, I had to put it to my right ear.”
Thomas got his hearing tested and sure enough, he also needed hearing aids. He came back to LSH, and was approved for help.
Thomas is back at work, able to both see and hear.
“Now I can see my wife and my grandchildren, and I can keep my job,” he says.
