Mr Gerard McGowan 2017-09-08 Person 5 5 0

Looking back on the past year, I realise how fortunate I have been, in having such a excellent surgeon ..... Dr McGowan has been amazing. A year ago, I was involved in a serious accident .... A bearing the size of a fist exploded under pressure, and smashed into my face ..... It was a high impact metal injury, lens damage, retina tear serious trauma plus haemorrhages and then later pressure in the eye rocketed ..... After various repairs, I eventually had an implant in arterial chamber and the iris reconstructed. At A&E the eye specialist was first class, and contacted Dr McGowan ...... My first thought was I am going abroad on holiday in a few days, can it be fixed before I go, or after I come back ..... I did not appreciate the seriousness of the damage, but quickly realised when Dr McGowan said that I could not fly, and that our priority was to save the eye and as much sight as possible ...... One year later, after a few surgeries, lots of appointments, I now fully appreciate how dedicated Dr McGowan is in ensuring his patients have the best possible care. After surgery to repair the damage to the eye, it was then a case of wait and see how much sight was saved and how the eye recovered .... Waiting to see what the eye pressure would do, was a concern, as the eye does not like trauma .... Unfortunately the eye pressure did go crazy, but thankfully another colleague was an expert in that field, and managed to bring it under control with some laser surgery .... My thanks to Dr Inglis also. Now, after the arterial/ lens implant , most of my sight has been saved, and apart from monitoring the pressure, I have few side effects after such a serious injury ..... Whilst doing the implant, Dr McGowan even managed to reconstruct the iris, this helped dramatically with the appearance of the eye ..... Now at first glance or with glasses on, my eye now looks as close to normal as possible. Years ago, I would have simply lost the eye, to think that it was repaired in three different areas, the amount of sight saved is amazing. I truly appreciate all the work Dr McGowan has done, and feel that his fantastic manner, and calm attitude helped me in dealing with the damage .... Thank you again, I really appreciate all that was done.