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The lens implant that saved Ricky Gervais's partner Jane Fallon: Groundbreaking surgery could save thousands of Britons from sudden blindness

Rare type of glaucoma can lead to attack that destroys vision in 24 hours
New lens replacement surgery could save thousands from going blind
Producer and bestselling author, Jane Fallon, 55, underwent operation

By Justin Stoneman For The Mail On Sunday

Published: 21:24 GMT, 2 April 2016 | Updated: 17:47 GMT, 3 April 2016

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Thousands of Britons with an eye condition that can cause sudden blindness could be saved by a common type of lens replacement surgery usually used to correct cataracts.

The treatment could be used for a rare type of glaucoma called primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG), or acute glaucoma, which can lead to a sudden attack that destroys vision in as little as 24 hours.

It occurs when the lens – which sits in the front of the eye and is responsible for visual focus – grows too thick, blocking the natural drainage of aqueous fluid in the eye.

Jane Fallon (right), partner of comedian Ricky Gervais (left), underwent the operation last summer, after her alarming condition was flagged up during a routine ophthalmic examination

This also leads to damaging high pressure within the eyeball, and can only be treated with surgery.

Most patients are offered a type of laser surgery that makes a hole in the front of the eye, allowing the fluid to circulate, so reducing pressure. But now a major international study comparing eye implants with other possible surgical options is expected to show that artificial lenses provide a better outcome.

‘The final results will be reported later this year, but we expect that it will show more favourable results for those patients who have lens replacement,’ said leading consultant ophthalmologist Vik Sharma, of the London Ophthalmology Centre.

Patients who undergo lens replacement will typically no longer need glasses, and will also never develop cataracts, which affect 60 per cent of those over 60.

One PACG patient already to have benefited from lens replacement is Jane Fallon, partner of comedian Ricky Gervais.

The former television producer and bestselling author, 55, underwent the operation last summer, after her alarming condition was flagged up during a routine ophthalmic examination.

Jane said: ‘After my eye test I was told I was showing symptoms of glaucoma. I realised – but only in retrospect – that pains in my eyes and the feeling of pressure that I had been experiencing must have been because of that. I’d assumed they were symptoms of migraines.’

Open-angle glaucoma typically causes no symptoms unless the outer field of vision starts to deteriorate. By contrast, PACG often produces severe symptoms including intense pain, redness of the eye, headache, seeing halos or ‘rainbow-like’ rings around lights and misty vision.

These are often a prelude to an attack that can lead to blindness.

A diagram showing how the lens is replaced. The treatment could be used for a rare type of glaucoma called primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG), or acute glaucoma, which can lead to a sudden attack that destroys vision in as little as 24 hours

Jane was told by Mr Sharma, who was her surgeon, that an immediate lens implant operation was needed to prevent sight loss. ‘A chronic glaucoma attack is possible at any time,’ he said. ‘PACG can cause irreversible blindness within 24 hours.’

Jane, who has been Gervais’s partner for 34 years, added: ‘I had to try to do something rather than just wait and risk blindness.’

Jane had an intraocular lens – or IOL – implanted in each eye. During the ten-minute procedure, a laser breaks up the natural lens. This is then sucked out via a tiny tube. The artificial lens is inserted through the same tiny incision in the front of the eye.

Jane had her eyes treated separately, two months apart. Both eyes can be done at once – the choice is the patient’s. She had a multifocal IOL fitted in her right eye, and an ‘accommodative’ IOL in her left.

Mr Sharma said: ‘Multifocal IOLs are graduated, much like multifocal spectacle lenses. They typically give excellent close-up vision. Accommodative IOLs have tiny hinges that allow the lens to move forward and back with the muscles and ligament inside the eye responsible for focusing. These give better intermediate and night time vision.

He added: ‘We always offer patients a combination, depending on their lifestyle and what they want the final results to achieve.’ To have both eyes treated costs £6,000.

Jane admitted: ‘I was terribly nervous in the run-up. But in fact, it wasn’t uncomfortable at all.’

And today she is passionate that people should get regular eye checks.

‘I hadn’t had an eye-check in eight years,’ she admitted. It’s awful to think that if I hadn’t gone for that test, I may have ended up losing my sight.

‘I tell everyone to go to their optician at least once a year now whether or not they have any vision problems.’

TOP LONDON PRIVATE CLINIC TO OFFER £9,000 OPERATION AT CUT PRICE

The London Eye Hospital (pictured) is to offer lens implants that cost £9,000 per eye for just £4,500 as part of a charitable initiative

A top private London clinic is set to offer lens implants that cost £9,000 per eye for just £4,500 as part of a charitable initiative – which its surgeons hope will prove the effectiveness of the operation to NHS rationing bodies.

Currently patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in over-50s, are not routinely offered this kind of surgery on the NHS, as it is still considered an experimental treatment.

Instead, patients with early stage AMD are offered nutritional advice, supplements and special reading glasses. As vision loss advances due to the loss of cells in the back of the eye that are responsible for sight, patients are offered injections of drugs that have been shown to slow the deterioration.

However, lens-implant surgery is the only option that can effectively restore vision.

It is estimated that by 2020, there will be nearly six million cases of AMD in Britain due to the rising number of people living to an older age.

The first to benefit from the new campaign from the London Eye Hospital Charitable Trust (london eyehospitaltrust.org) is 87-year-old Brenda Lee from Mansfield, who was registered blind.

Brenda, who lives in Skegby, near Mansfield, said: ‘Everyone I spoke to in the NHS said that they couldn’t help me any more.’

The new lens she has in each eye, eyeMax ‘Mono’, takes five minutes to insert in a blade-less procedure.

Brenda added: ‘I no longer need to rely on my daughter and her family and can get around just fine on my own, and I can see, rather than just hear the television.’