Ohio Boy Born With Eye Condition Receives Prosthetic Iris

CINCINNATI – An Ohio boy born without irises is starting to see colors more clearly after receiving a prosthetic iris.

Surgeons from the Cincinnati Eye Institute implanted the custom-made device Thursday into the right eye of 7-year-old Nathaniel Brantley of suburban Cincinnati.

The manufacturer, HumanOptics/Dr. Schmidt Intraocularlinsen Co. in Germany, matched the implants to photographs of Nathaniel's mother's eyes.

Surgeon Michael Snyder says if all goes well he'll operate on Nathaniel's left eye.

The iris is the colored part of the eye that controls the amount of light entering the eye.

Bright lights have always hurt Nathaniel's eyes and he can't focus well. Before the surgery, he couldn't always see colors clearly.

"I can see red and blue and yellow and orange and green and white," Nathaniel said afterward in the exam room.