Shannon's Story
Seeing a Sunset Without Keratoconus
The cornea transplant recipients who participated in the Circle of Light Photo Project come from a wide variety of locations and backgrounds. Yet, each had their lives transformed by the generosity of another person through eye tissue donation and transplantation. While many cornea recipients regain their sight in total, some still live with vision loss due to other complications in the eye. Nonetheless, each is eternally thankful to their donors. Today, we'd like you to meet Shannon Breitzman.
Shannon has Keratoconus in both eyes. She was diagnosed in 1994. She received a transplant in her left eye in December 1994 and in her right eye in March 1995. After about 18 years, in 2012, she had to have each eye re-transplanted.
“The surgeries really changed things for me, in a positive way. I had an infection in my left eye after the second transplant. It took about a year to get rid of the infection and left some scarring, but they saved my eye and my donor tissue. I can see fairly well now with the assistance of sclera lenses.”
Shannon likes to take photos of her children and anything that strikes her as beautiful at the moment. For example, she and her husband were driving back from the memorial service for her best friends husband, Michael, when she noticed an unusual sunset. “It was crazy beautiful. It made us think it was our friend Michael telling us he was still with us.”
Go Back The cornea transplant recipients who participated in the Circle of Light Photo Project come from a wide variety of locations and backgrounds. Yet, each had their lives transformed by the generosity of another person through eye tissue donation and transplantation. While many cornea recipients regain their sight in total, some still live with vision loss due to other complications in the eye. Nonetheless, each is eternally thankful to their donors. Today, we'd like you to meet Shannon Breitzman.
Shannon has Keratoconus in both eyes. She was diagnosed in 1994. She received a transplant in her left eye in December 1994 and in her right eye in March 1995. After about 18 years, in 2012, she had to have each eye re-transplanted.
“The surgeries really changed things for me, in a positive way. I had an infection in my left eye after the second transplant. It took about a year to get rid of the infection and left some scarring, but they saved my eye and my donor tissue. I can see fairly well now with the assistance of sclera lenses.”
Shannon likes to take photos of her children and anything that strikes her as beautiful at the moment. For example, she and her husband were driving back from the memorial service for her best friends husband, Michael, when she noticed an unusual sunset. “It was crazy beautiful. It made us think it was our friend Michael telling us he was still with us.”