Monitoring Desk
GREENVILLE: MrBeast, a YouTube sensation, has made the world clearer for at least 1,000 blind people by funding cataract operations to restore their eyesight.
The most recent stunt by the content creator was paying for 1,000 people who were blind or nearly blind but could not afford the surgery to get their cataracts removed.
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, said in a video that had over 32 million views as of Sunday afternoon that they were treating a thousand people’s blindness.
The video includes heartwarming before-and-after shots of patients seeing clearly following the surgery. Some patients received cash donations and other items from the YouTuber as well.
Helping blind people
In Jacksonville, Florida, Donaldson collaborated with ophthalmologist and surgeon Jeff Levenson to conduct out the initial series of surgeries. Levenson has managed the “Gift of Sight” programme, which offers free cataract surgery to uninsured patients who are rendered legally blind by cataracts, for more than 20 years.
In the video, Levenson makes reference to cataract removal surgeries and states that patients who require a 10-minute procedure account for half of all blindness worldwide.
He stated that in the days and weeks following his own cataract surgery, he was astounded by how brilliant, beautiful, and colorful the world was, but he was astounded by the concept that there are hundreds of millions, if not 200 million, people worldwide who are blind or almost blind from cataracts and do not have access to treatment.
Patients were “in disbelief that someone would actually seek them out to rescue them from blindness, and then have the kindness and generosity of heart to offer the surgery,” according to Levenson.
