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Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust/PA Wire
World News

Priest is first person to undergo robotic eye surgery

by Hannah Tooley

70-year-old Fr William Beaver, associate priest at St Mary the Virgin Church in Oxford, said his eyesight was returning following the operation, having previously experienced distorted vision similar to "looking in a hall of mirrors at a fairground".

The procedure - the world's first robotic operation - was carried out by surgeons at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, who said it could revolutionise the way such conditions are treated.

Father Beaver told BBC Breakfast: "I was completely relaxed and completely comfortable because I could see that all the technology was in place and all the goodwill was in place and all the skills were in place.

"Because, you see, the key is the precision. The pulse... coursing through the hand of the surgeon could have ruined it, could have given me a haemorrhage and this just made it, well, simple."

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust/PA Wire

Professor Robert MacLaren, who completed the operation, said: "With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed."

The surgeons used a joystick and touchscreen outside the eye to control the robot while monitoring its progress through the operating microscope.

Speaking at his follow-up visit at the Oxford Eye Hospital, Father Beaver said: "My sight is coming back.

"I am delighted that my surgery went so well and I feel honoured to be part of this pioneering research project."

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