This man’s blindness due to cataracts wasn’t rare, but what happened next might be

John Wilkinson lost the sight in his left eye when he was a kid. Over the summer, vision in his good eye began to wane.

An Orlando Sentinel story explains: “Every day, it gradually got worse,” said Wilkinson, who lives in Casselberry, Fla. “And then I woke up one day and I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.”

Wilkinson went blind for the same reason many others do, especially older people. “Cataracts are the number one cause of reversible blindness in the world,” Dr. David Auerbach of Maitland, Fla., says in the story.

How do cataracts affect vision? They cloud the lens and cause blurry sight or blindness. Here’s a fact sheet from the National Eye Institute about risk factors and detection of cataracts. And here’s when you should consider surgery and other treatments, this MayoClinic.com report says.

Now go back and read the full story on what happened to Wilkinson. And here’s a big hint: It’s a story where the holiday spirit and health collides -- in a good way.