Published: 17:11 BST, 26 August 2026 | Updated: 18:03 BST, 26 August 2026
A woman left completely blind after a car accident underwent a first-of-its-kind procedure and regained her sight.
Elena, a 67-year-old woman from Italy, had lost her vision after a severe car collision. The accident damaged the optic nerve in her left eye, leaving her unable to transmit light from her eye to her brain.
This disrupts communication between the eye and the brain and prevents the brain from receiving and processing visual information from the eye.
The rest of the structures in her left eye were undamaged but she still went blind.
Her right eye, which had already experienced damage due to macular degeneration, also suffered trauma from the accident, damaging the retina – which converts light into signals and sends those signals through the optic nerve to the brain – and the cornea – the outer surface of the eye that helps focus images.
Due to the extent of the damage, a corneal transplant – which would have been the standard in similar cases – was not an option, leaving Elena also completely blind in her right eye for more than five years.
However, in a world-first, surgeons at the University Eye Clinic at Molinette Hospital in Turin, Italy, successfully performed a new type of retinal transplant from Elena's left eye to her right, local outlet La Stampa reported.
This resulted in Elena regaining her vision in her right eye.
Elena is pictured above with her guide dog, Joe, and Professor Michele Reibaldi, who led Elena's procedure
Led by Professor Michele Reibaldi, doctors used healthy, but no longer functioning tissue from Elena's left eye and transplanted it to her right eye to replace the damaged parts.
The transplant included the cornea, the sclera – helps control eye movement and eye shape – the conjunctiva – keeps eye moist and protects from debris – and for the first time in the world, the central portion of the retina, called the macula.
The macula is the part of the eye that provides the clearest vision, allowing a person to see fine details, read, recognize faces and drive. It contains a high concentration of cone cells, which are responsible for color vision and detailed vision.
This transplant allowed Elena to regain one seeing eye from two previously blind eyes.
Reibaldi told La Stampa the procedure was a 'very complex surgical marathon, lasting almost six hours,' but that the initial results have been 'encouraging.'
