Distraught over a degenerative eye disorder that threatened to derail his Olympic bobsledding career and destroy his eyesight, Steven Holcomb previously attempted suicide by taking 73 sleeping pills in a hotel room in 2007.
After surviving this ordeal, Holcomb realized that he needed to turn his life around. He connected with eye specialist Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler. Trying an innovative procedure, Dr. Walcher restored Holcomb's vision.
Steven Holcomb is an American bobsledder who has competed since 1998. At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, he won the four-man bobsled event for the United States, its first gold medal in that event since 1948.
Before the start of 2008-09, Holcomb was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease. Holcomb was suffering with
keratoconus, a degenerative disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than the more normal gradual curve. Keratoconus can cause
substantial distortion of vision, with multiple images, streaking and sensitivity to light all often reported by the patient.
Treatment options are limited. However, trying a new procedure, Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler told Holcomb he had another choice; a quick painless crosslinking procedure called C3-R in which a vitamin solution is combined with light. The procedure was a success. Since then, the procedure has proved successful in dozens of cases and it has been dubbed '
Holcomb C3-R'.
Inspired by the events, both men have produced books. Holcomb has chronicled his ordeal in his book
But Now I See; and Dr. Boxer Wachler has detailed his journey of restoring Steven’s vision in his book “
How We Conquered Keratoconous”.
These make for inspirational reads.
