A golden vision: "[Steven Holcomb's] bobsled career and childhood dream of winning an Olympic gold medal were dashed forever--or so it seemed.".

• Author: Wachler, Brian Boxer
• Position: Athletic Arena - Interview

THREE YEARS AGO, I had the pleasure of shaking hands with now-Olympic gold medalist bobsled driver Steven Holcomb. At that moment, I had no idea of the journey we would take and the bond that would develop as a result of our meeting.

Holcomb had been suffering from a degenerative eye disease known as keratoconus. The condition causes the eye's outer lens (cornea) to bulge, like a hernia, which can result in severe vision loss. The cornea is the clear window of the eye and focuses the majority of the light that comes into contact with our eyes. Any abnormalities occurring within the cornea can make clear vision nearly impossible. Keratoconus causes highly distorted vision. Eyesight may continue to deteriorate for 10-20 years before the disease begins to "burn out," leaving significant collateral damage along the way. At the onset, keratoconus sufferers may experience sensitivity to light, blurred vision, and an intense distortion of the objects of their sight. For Holcomb, who was responsible for driving a bobsled at speeds exceeding 95 mph in immensely harsh conditions, the disease had presented him and his team with a severe risk.

He sought the help of dozens of eye specialists, but none were able to offer a feasible solution. He had undergone several procedures and been fitted with various lenses. However, his vision was reaching a point of loss where contact lenses no longer could help. As his sight continued to worsen, he was advised by several eye surgeons to have an invasive and painful cornea transplant. Because of its fragile nature, a cornea transplant would not have allowed him to drive the bobsled ever again, so that was not a feasible option. At that point, he was legally blind and his 20/500 vision was too serious a safety hazard to his teammates. It was then that Holcomb submitted his official letter of resignation to the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. His bobsled career and childhood dream of winning an Olympic gold medal were dashed forever--or so it seemed.

This was a dark time for this extraordinary young man, but his team never gave up hope. In 2007, bobsled team doctor Scott Stoll contacted me after researching a then relatively new procedure I had developed known as C3-R. The procedure may have seemed too good to be true, as it had shown promising results in keratoconus sufferers without the setback of invasive surgeries that require a large period of time to recover--and are quite risky. C3-R is a nonsurgical...