Stories
Brian: A Bilateral Cornea Recipient Helps Others to See
Returning home from his first cornea transplant, Brian Salisbury, now a 50-something sales engineer, could for the first time see well enough to notice handprints all along the hallway wall, where night after night he'd been groping his way to bed. "I told my wife, 'We have to paint these!'" Nearly 20 years later, he is helping other cornea recipients find their way through their equivalent of that dark hallway.
After a college English teacher asked why he squinted all the time, Brian sought out an ophthalmologist, who diagnosed keratoconus, a degenerative condition that leaves corneas misshapen and scarred, distorting vision. He wore special contact lenses for ten years but began to wonder whether he'd be able to continue his work as an engineer. He had difficulty reading specs and, when drafting, couldn't tell if he'd drawn one line or two. Ultimately, Brian needed a corneal graft in 1990 for his right eye and another in 1992 for the left eye.
The transplants proved career-saving: Brian now sells the heating systems he used to design and enjoys 20/20 eyesight with contacts. "I am fortunate to have been given the gift of sight," he says. "I wrote letters to the families of both donors thanking them for enabling me to carry on my life." He also golfs, swims, and rides motorcycles.
Brian found another way to express his gratitude-he joined a Lions club. Lions raise the funds that ensure the Minnesota Lions Eye Bank can continue its mission. "I saw what the Lions had done for me," he explains, "so in 2001 I decided to pay them back. Lions members give up their free time to flip pancakes and host carnivals, all to make the world a better place." He now serves on the eye bank's board of directors, reviewing grant requests to enhance services. As Brian puts it, "When you can't see and then suddenly you can, you want to help others."
In 2009, Brian became a donor family member. His son, AJ, aged 24, lost his life to a rare form of cancer. Because of his health condition, AJ could not be an organ or tissue donor, but he could be, and was, an eye donor. Nothing makes up for the loss of AJ, but his family takes comfort in knowing that he helped those in need just as others helped Brian.