Bullied as a child after losing his sight to a sharp pencil, Dick Vitale turned his boyhood’s turmoil into “a ball and a dream” and eventually became the voice of ESPN college basketball — a job he’s enjoyed for 41 years.
How did Vitale turn his lost sight into better prospects and overcome self-doubt after unsparing cruelty?
“Bullying was a way of life,” he says. “After school I used to go into my room, look at my drifting eye in the mirror, and cry. But there’s one thing my parents taught me that changed my life.”
Vitale is joined by Dr. Naresh Mandava, whose career and life’s mission is to make people see again. Dr. Mandava is Chair and Executive Director of the Sue Anschutz-Rogers Eye Centers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
“That happened 75 years ago,” Dr. Mandava explains of Vitale’s injury. “But nowadays we have procedures that can restore sight after a traumatic injury.”He and his team of eye doctors are working on a breakthrough procedure that uses a patient’s own stem cells to grow retina tissue that once transplanted, might restore sight. “There’s so much excitement around making someone see again,” says Dr. Mandava.
In this touching episode Vitale opens up about the big moment that would change his life — the thunderbolt surprise when his wife finally found a doctor who could straighten his eye.
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