MCG doctor helps man regain sight after double-eye strokes

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - One local man has a big thank you for a doctor with the Medical College of Georgia. Bill Jones was about to be completely blind after having a stroke in each of his eyes.

When the first stroke came on, it was a typical day for Jones. He was browsing the web when he began to see weird patterns in one eye.

“And then, I didn’t see anything,” he said.

And his eye doctor didn’t have answers.

“He looked every way but Sunday at this eye and said there was nothing wrong with it that he could see,” said Jones.

Jones later learned he had an eye stroke. His vision in that eye was gone forever.

Fast forward to 2021, where it happened again in the other eye. It’s something his interventional neurologist at MCG, Dr. Dan-Victor Giurgiutiu, says he’s only seen twice in his eight years.

Now, time was a critical component to save the rest of his sight. Doctors only have up to 6 hours to perform a medical thrombectomy, a highly specialized and highly sought after procedure. It’s a minimally invasive way to bust up the clot.

“We just go in through the leg, neck, head, give the blood thinner, and then we wake up the patient and see how they’re doing,” said Dr. Giurgiutiu.

This procedure isn’t just for eye strokes, but strokes in the brain-- the leading cause of death in the United States according to the CDC.

Our region, some people call, the “stroke belt.”

“Because of a lot of heart disease, diabetes, tobacco use, we have a lot of strokes,” said Dr. Giurgiutiu.

He says people’s conditions are 60 to 70 percent more likely to improve after the procedure.

Some might call it science, but Bill Jones said it’s just what God intended.

“My choice was not to be blind, of course, but I basically accepted whatever God would choose.”

MCG tells us our hospital is the only one in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina that can perform that type of procedure for an eye stroke.

Time is always of the essence for strokes and stroke recovery. If you can’t talk, can’t move your arms, or can’t speak, reach out to a doctor immediately.

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