Kim Garner started her Sunday morning like any other – getting ready for church with her family. However, as she was getting dressed for the day, a binder ring she used in her closet sliced open the front of her eye. Immediately, Kim’s vision was impaired, and the pain was unbearable. Her husband rushed her to the emergency room.
“Everything went red, and then grey… and then black.”
Fearing permanent blindness, Kim’s local ER doctors sent her to an eye trauma center. There, the eye surgeon used a plastic cornea to protect the retina, and then replaced the damaged tissue with donor tissue provided by the Alabama Eye Bank.
Through the hard work of surgeons and tissue provided by the Alabama Eye Bank, Kim’s vision was restored. “It’s a miracle that I didn’t lose my sight,” she says. “And it’s all because of the generous decision someone made to be an eye donor.”
Today, Kim advocates for eye donation, knowing that her sight was saved thanks to the selfless gift of an eye donor.