Patient of 96 years to officially open new REI building
96-year-old Robert Johns (aka Bob) has been a patient with the REI (formerly Royal Eye Infirmary) since 1932, when he was referred as a 5-year-old to its previous location in the Mutley area of Plymouth. Having been treated for 91 years, he credits the care and treatment he has received over the decades for allowing him to live his life to the full, including having a successful career as an electrical engineer and even for meeting his wife!
“All in all, with the help of the REI, I worked for 47 years, travelling all over the country. Not bad considering I was told I was going blind at the age of 5 by the school optician!
“The REI definitely worked their miracle. They gave me enough sight to do everything I wanted to do, and even when I retired in 1978 I taught myself to play the keyboard and used to go around visiting elderly people to provide entertainment. 91 years since my first referral and I’ve still got enough sight, all thanks to the REI.”
Bob has been blind in his right eye for most of his life, due to being in a car accident as a baby. He has peripheral vision in his left eye due to having a hole in his retina, and is grateful to the REI for maintaining his ability to see.
“I had to retire early as I had a cataract, and with the operation I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. As it turns out, not only did the surgeons save my sight, but my eyesight was actually better afterwards than it had ever been. I felt like a bit of a fraud!”
After his operation in 1985, Bob decided to see two specialists at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
“They said: ‘To be honest Mr Johns you’ve wasted your time and money coming to London. What the REI have done for you is fantastic, they’ve used a procedure we’d never have thought of. The REI in Plymouth has a reputation second to none throughout the Western World’ and then one of them quietly said, so that his colleague couldn’t hear, that he wished he worked there himself!”
As the current longest-standing patient with the REI, Bob has been invited to officially open the new REI building and cut a ribbon as part of the opening ceremony. He says he’s honoured to have been asked and is really looking forward to it.
“The REI holds a lot for me, I could never sing their praises enough. If anyone ever has the misfortune of needing to go to the REI, and you’re sat in the waiting room and getting a bit impatient, when they call your name just think you too could be heading for a miracle. That’s the way I feel about it, because what the REI has done for me is nothing short of a miracle.”
Watch Bob's video here:
