Around 350 people who had their blindness partially-cured by a bionic eye firm fear they’ll lose their sight for a second time after the company went bust.
Los Angeles-based Second Sight, discontinued its implant hardware in 2019, and reportedly let go of it’s staff in the early months of the pandemic in 2020.
It’s 350-plus worldwide patients were then left with obsolete and unsupported retinal implants, which cost about $500,000 per patient in total, with 80 percent covered by insurance.
Many now fear that they’ll be left blind and without any help should the sophisticated implants fail – and face potentially painful surgery to remove the devices.
Barbara Campbell’s Argus II retinal implant system stopped working in 2013 as she made her way to transfer trains during rush hour.
At the time, she had already had the implant in her left eye for four years, due to a genetic disease that had rendered her completely blind in her 30s.
Terry Byland and his wife Sue, just before his surgery to implant an Argus II prosthetic device in his left eye
KPBF3M Implantation under general anesthesia of a retinal prosthesis Argus II (Second Sight), Ophthalmology department of Bordeaux Hospital, France
Pictured: The Argus bionic eye implant system
‘I remember exactly where I was: I was switching from the 6 train to the F train,’ Campbell tells IEEE Spectrum.
‘I was about to go down the stairs, and all of a sudden I heard a little “beep, beep, beep” sound.’
She was so spooked by the experience that she chose not to have the device reinstalled – with others who took a more optimistic outlook now facing their own nightmare.
Terry Byland is the only person to have received this Argus implant in both eyes, having one implanted in his right eye in 2004 and his left 11 years later.
But in 2020, Byland, who became a spokesperson for the company and even met Stevie Wonder at a conference, had learned secondhand that Second Sight was on the verge of bankruptcy, abandoning the implant technology in the process.
He says he began to worry when the firm stopped contacting him about upgrades and other developments in its technology.
He told Spectrum: ‘As long as nothing goes wrong, I’m fine. But if something does go wrong with it, well, I’m screwed. Because there’s no way of getting it fixed.’
‘It is fantastic technology and a lousy company,’ another Second Sight patient, Ross Doerr said.
Doerr received an implant in one eye in 2019 and learned in early 2020 that he was eligible for software upgrades to the retinal implant that could possibly improve his vision even further.
KPBF3K Implantation under general anesthesia of a retinal prosthesis Argus II (Second Sight)
Pictured: a diagram of the bionic eye implant, showing how the camera, antenna and video processing unit work together to create artificial vision
Like Byland, Doerr learned of the company’s dire situation in early 2020, early on into the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Doerr would go on to call his Second Sight vision-rehab therapist shortly thereafter when he was told the company had laid the entire staff off.
‘She said, “Well, funny you should call. We all just got laid off,”‘ he remembers.
‘She said, “By the way, you’re not getting your upgrades.”‘
While Campbell eventually received a different firm’s retinal implant, Byland and Doerr remain at the mercy of outdated technology, which is expensive and painful to remove.
Pictured: the Argus II bionic eye hardware, video processing unit and camera system, which is mounted to the sunglasses
Second Sight did go public in June 2021 after discontinuing their retinal implant and nearly declaring bankruptcy, raising $57.5 million at $5 per share, with the company promising to focus on its clinical trial of a brain implant.
That implant, called Orion, also provides artificial vision, according to the company.
Meanwhile, its stock price continued to plunge to around $1.50 in the ensuing months, and in February 2022 Second Source announced a proposed merger with biopharmaceutical company Nano Precision Medical, effectively ending all updates and support for their Argus implant hardware.
Second Source executives, none of whom were added to the leadership team of the new company, did not immediately respond to comment, but did provide Spectrum with a statement on the matter.
‘We are a recognized global leader in neuromodulation devices for blindness and are committed to developing new technologies to treat the broadest population of sight-impaired individuals.’
