Awards and Recognition
2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards – Finalist
2013 New England Book Festival – Honorable Mention
2013 London Book Festival – Honorable Mention
In Saving Sight, Dr. Andrew Lam describes his life as a surgeon in vivid detail and brings readers into the operating room to share the constant risks, high expectations, and occasional triumphs that accompany him there. This is an unflinching, gritty look at a surgeon’s approach to eye trauma, cataracts, LASIK, retinal detachments, macular degeneration and more. In addition, the author blends his experiences with the uplifting stories of doctors whose inventions make saving sight possible, including:
Sir Harold Ridley – a British doctor whose serendipitous encounter with an RAF pilot during the Battle of Britain led to his invention of the artificial intraocular lens. Click here to learn more about the Ridley Eye Foundation, a charity he started in 1967.
Charles Kelman – An American ophthalmologist whose trip to the dentist sparked an epiphany that resulted in the invention of phacoemulsification – the modern method of cataract removal and most commonly performed surgery in the world today. Click here for an informative PBS video about his life.
Charles Schepens – The Belgian inventor of the instrument that permits full visualization of the retina, who was first a Resistance hero in France during World War II.
Arnall Patz – A man whose peculiar observation in the NICU, while still only a resident-in-training, led to treatments that saved the sight of countless premature babies.
Judah Folkman – The Harvard surgeon who endured years of ridicule for his theory of angiogenesis – a theory that later led to sight-saving treatments for macular degeneration.
Louis Braille – The poignant story of the boy who suffered repeated defeats and died completely unknown, but whose dot system ultimately opened the world of books to the blind.
PLUS – the remarkable innovators who invented refractive surgery.