Harold Ridley (ophthalmologist) facts for kids

Sir Nicholas Harold Lloyd Ridley (born July 10, 1906 – died May 25, 2001) was a British eye doctor, also known as an ophthalmologist. He is famous for inventing the intraocular lens (IOL). This special lens helps people who have cataracts, a condition that makes their vision cloudy. He was also a pioneer in the surgery to put these lenses into the eye.

Early Life and Education

Harold Ridley was born in Kibworth Harcourt, England. He was the older son of Nicholas Charles Ridley and Margaret Parker. From a young age, he was known by his middle name, Harold. He had a stammer, but he learned to manage it well. As a child, he even met and sat on the lap of Florence Nightingale, a very famous nurse.

He went to Charterhouse School and then studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge from 1924 to 1927. He finished his medical training in 1930 at St Thomas' Hospital. After that, he became a surgeon at St Thomas' and Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. He chose to specialize in eye care, becoming an ophthalmologist. In 1938, he became a full surgeon and consultant at Moorfields Hospital.

Inventing the Intraocular Lens

During World War II, Harold Ridley treated many Royal Air Force pilots who had eye injuries. One pilot, Gordon Cleaver, had tiny pieces of plastic from his aircraft's cockpit canopy stuck in his eye. Ridley noticed something amazing: unlike glass splinters, these plastic pieces did not cause a bad reaction or inflammation in the eye.

This observation gave him a brilliant idea. He thought, "What if I could use this same plastic to replace a cloudy eye lens?" People with cataracts have a cloudy natural lens, which makes it hard to see. Ridley wondered if an artificial lens made of this plastic could help.

He had a lens made from the same type of plastic, called Perspex, by a company named ICI. On November 29, 1949, at St Thomas' Hospital, Ridley performed the first ever implant of an artificial lens into an eye. However, he didn't leave it in permanently until February 8, 1950. The first lens was made by Rayner.

It took many years for his invention to be widely accepted. In the United States, the intraocular lens was finally approved as "safe and effective" in 1981 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In 1987, Gordon Cleaver, the pilot whose injury inspired Ridley, had cataract surgery himself. He received an artificial lens, which helped him see better.

Wartime Service and Eye Research

Harold Ridley worked in civilian hospitals in England during the early parts of World War II. He treated injured pilots from the Battle of Britain. Later in the war, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was sent to West Africa and South East Asia.

Studying River Blindness

While in Africa, Ridley did important research on a disease called onchocerciasis, also known as River Blindness. He was stationed in the Gold Coast, which is now Ghana. In 1941, he became interested in studying this disease, which was common in parts of the country.

He traveled to a remote area in north-west Ghana to find patients. He examined many people with a special eye lamp that ran on a battery. He found that most of them had River Blindness, and ten percent were blind. Ridley carefully drew and photographed what he saw in their eyes. His detailed painting of the eye's back part (called the "Ridley fundus") became very famous. His paper on "Ocular Onchocerciasis" in 1945 was a major step in understanding this disease.

Snake Venom and Eye Injuries

Ridley also wrote about spitting snakes and how their venom affects the eyes. He shared a story from his time in the Gold Coast. A worker named Gogi Kumasi was cutting grass when a Black-necked spitting cobra spat venom into his right eye. Ridley treated the man, and his eye fully recovered in about a week. Ridley even wondered if diluted snake venom could one day be used as a powerful painkiller in eye surgery.

Helping Malnourished Prisoners

After 18 months in Ghana, Ridley was sent to India and then Burma in 1944. There, he studied and treated former prisoners of war who were suffering from poor nutrition. Many of these prisoners had worked on the Burma Railway and were starved and mistreated. They developed a condition called nutritional amblyopia, which caused sudden blurry spots in their vision.

Ridley found that a good diet could help improve their vision. Some even made a partial recovery within six weeks of being released. However, severe cases were irreversible. He wrote an article about this in 1945. Ridley used multivitamin therapy and a normal diet, which helped many prisoners improve. This was one of the first large studies of nutritional amblyopia.

The International Intra-Ocular Implant Club

In 1966, Ridley and Peter Choyce started a group called the Intra-Ocular Implant Club. Their goal was to encourage research and sharing of ideas about IOLs and eye surgery. At that time, many doctors were against using IOLs. The club provided a place for doctors to freely discuss new ideas. It quickly became international, and in 1975, it was renamed The International Intra-Ocular Implant Club.

The Ridley Eye Foundation

In 1967, Ridley created the Ridley Foundation, also known as the Ridley Eye Foundation. This charity raises money to help people in developing countries get cataract surgery. It aims to prevent blindness that can be avoided. The foundation is still active today, especially in the Middle East. Ridley's son, Nicholas, is now the chairman.

Later Life and Legacy

Harold Ridley retired from hospital service in 1971. In the 1990s, he himself had successful intraocular lens implants in both of his eyes. He was very happy that he benefited from his own invention and that the surgery was done at St Thomas' Hospital, where he performed the very first operation.

Ridley passed away on May 25, 2001, at the age of 94. He lived in Stapleford near Salisbury, England.

Recognition and Awards

Harold Ridley received many honors for his groundbreaking work:

• In 1986, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a very important scientific group.
• In 1989, he received an honorary doctorate degree from the Medical University of South Carolina.
• He received the Gullstrand Medal in 1992 and the Gonin Medal in 1994, both named after famous eye surgeons.
• In 1999, he was honored at several international meetings as one of the most important eye doctors of the 20th century.

On December 31, 1999, Harold Ridley was made a Knight Bachelor by the Queen. This honor was for his "pioneering services to Cataract Surgery." He was knighted at Buckingham Palace in February 2000, at the age of 93.

First permanent insertion of intraocular lens, 8 February 1950

In 2001, a special plaque was placed at St Thomas' Hospital in London to remember the first IOL implantation. Ridley died later that same year.

In September 2010, the Royal Mail issued a postage stamp to celebrate "Medical Breakthroughs." The stamp showed "artificial lens implant surgery pioneered by Sir Harold Ridley 1949."

On February 18, 2012, a blue plaque was put up in Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, where he was born. This plaque honors his amazing work.

A plaque in memory of Ridley is also in the gardens of his old college, Pembroke College, Cambridge. It says that he was a "pioneer of intraocular lens surgery" and a "benefactor of this College."

In 2013, a book called Saving Sight included a story about Harold Ridley, highlighting his contributions to eye surgery.

Film and TV

On January 6, 2016, a short film about Harold Ridley and Gordon Cleaver was shown on the BBC 1 television program The One Show. The film used old photos and interviews with Sir Harold's son, Nicholas, to explain the "Eureka moment" that led to the invention of the intraocular lens.

Images for kids

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  Black-necked cobra