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Sheyla Camacho suffered from severely impaired vision most of her adult life. Poor eyesight affected nearly every aspect of her existence negatively – from driving a car, to her career, to caring for her child – being legally blind was her struggle in life.

Originally from the Dominican Republic, Sheyla never thought she would be able to see her children’s smiling faces as clearly as she does today. Thanks to a 90-minute procedure called corrective corneal eye transplant surgery her life
has changed forever.

She received the transplanted tissue from The Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration and is incredibly grateful to her donor.
“Having the cornea transplant surgery has completely transformed my life, she said. The most precious moment was when I could clearly see my children’s faces for the first time in my life.”

Her family came to the United States when she was 12 and settled in Elmhurst. Sheyla attended Newtown High School and lived in Queens for many years before settling down in Valley Stream.

When she first arrived in this country Sheyla was diagnosed with Keratoconus, a degenerative eye condition that can be genetically inherited. According to Dr. Douglas Buxton, the surgeon that operated on her, the condition affects only about one in 10 thousand people, and will get progressively worse as someone ages.

Keratoconus can cause substantial distortion of vision, with multiple images, streaking and sensitivity to light all often reported by the patient.

Accoriding to Dr. Buxton, the condition usually negatively progresses in patients through their late teens and early twenties. Throughout this time Sheyla had been wearing hard contact lenses to function, but after more than 10 years she could no longer tolerate them.

Hard contact lenses can provide some relief and a modicum of normalcy, but are also expensive, uncomfortable and provide diminishing positive results as the person gets older.

She decided to have the surgery performed after a brush with death when a contact fell off while she was driving her car. It was a harrowing experience that she never wanted to live through again. And it determined her to get the procedure done so that she could live a longer, less stressful life.
Because her eyesight was so poor, the surgery deemed a medical necessity and therefore paid for by her insurance
provider.

Dr. Buxton performed the corneal surgery in June 2006 after first meeting her in October 2004.

Buxton says that when he first began treating her she could no longer tolerate wearing the hard contact lenses she had used for so many years. He is quite pleased with her progress and happy to have helped her.

“I’ve given her a marked improvement in vision,” he said.
“It was like a new world, it was amazing,” she said of her new clarity. “I got home and I could see my baby clearly for the first time. It completely changed my life.”