Show SAVING SIGHT A maternal desire to take good pictures of it her er son led mary R brown into the field of professional photography where she now specializes in the complicated photography of the human eye she is shown above with camera and patient at the new york eye and ear infirmary SCIENCE IN SURGERY complicated device UP will berfect Pes Seel Ps the inyim eye most people understand how the X ray is used by the medical profession and many have heard that photography is being used in the medical field however it is difficult for the average person to visualize just how photography can be used to advantage in A visit to the new york eye and ear infirmary the oldest specialized hospital in the western hemisphere where people from all walks of life have been treated for more than a century in its numerous eye ear nose and throat cl bics damon demon strates the value of the technique this hospital is staffed by the great and near great in the fields of aph and otolaryngology surgeons with park avenue tices cices come daily to diagnose and treat the 35 people who pass through its clinics each year here medical photography has become a recognized and dished service in the treatment of many eye diseases explains techniques this department was organized and is run by mary R brown one of the few women in this country who in the field of aph photography she is a pretty quiet woman whose own son is just completing his medical edu cation mrs brown explained some of the scientific techniques she uses daily in her d agnostic research and medical record work for surgeons at the new york eye and ear in firmery in addition to the small and delicate cameras that photograph the outer sections of the eye there Is the fundus cam era used for photographing the retina of the eye the abea aiea area deep within the eye itself this corn com camera uses the lens of the patient patients s eye as part of its optical system and the resulting pictures are in color they have great diagnostic value the sur geon s decision depends many times on these true to life photographs mrs brown relates that only recently a young lad who had his eye hurt playing basketball was brought into the hospital A growth had formed on the retina and ret inal pictures were ordered these were airmailed to a famous eye specialist in england to corroborate our own surgeon surgeons s diagnosis with nothing but these colored slides magnified and thrown on a screen he recommended preserving the eye as our own men d d in time the growth went away just as the specialist said it would and today this boy hats his sight recalls ar case back in november 1945 1943 mrs brown recalls a young G I 1 bride fa al 1 0 II 11 T w 5 wa HAVEN FOR AFFLICTED the new york eye and ear in firmery where mrs brown helps guide surgeon surgeons s hands and seal with her photographic tech is the oldest hospital of its kind in the western hemisphere founded in 1820 it ranks as the third oldest hospital in the city of new york whose husband was still in the south pacific was brought in for photographs her record when she entered the hospital stated that a growth thought to be ma lignana had formed in the ins iris of the right eye and therefore the eye should be removed the surgeon in charge at the new york eye and ear infirmary was not in full accord with this diagnosis and did not feel that this patient should lose an eye without further study he ordered photographs taken of the condition every month carefully measuring the size and comparing with the previous plates at the end of a year the growth had not expanded in any direction these measure ments proved during the following year pictures were taken every two months and careful checks were made against the first plates it has been fully determined up to the present time that me the growth is not malignant and this grateful young woman still has her eye today movies taken in color and used for teaching purposes are a part of mrs brown s daily work these films of rare and delicate opera eions performed at the infirmary are being used to guide and teach a new generation of eye surgeons throughout the americas and as tar far away as india and the philippines in addition to routine work classes in medical photography are conducted for graduate students in ophthalmology thus the young Cla cia lists who tram here can take with them to the small communities throughout the country a knowledge of ophthalmic photography that will help them trace the progress of eye diseases and their treatments thus many times saving the sight of an eye otherwise lost |