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CU Nearly-blind girl with Feinbloom and interpreter Feinbloom fixes spectacles on girl
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SV&CU Girl wearing glasses and looking at chart, Feinbloom changes glasses for a different set
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CU&SV Girl reading small print (3 shots)
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CU Interpreter watching
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SV&CU Interpreter and girl wearing glasses (3 shots)
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SV Girl with Feinbloom and interpreter
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Initials ET/1701 ET/1710



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A 10-year-old Brazilian girl, who has to virtually press her nose against the television screen to watch any programme, can now see from a comfortable distance.

Paula Saraiva, almost totally blind from a defect at birth called "microphthalmia" or "small eyes" -- eyes half the size of normal with misshapen pupils -- had her vision corrected by a New York optometrist, William Feinbloom on Wednesday (5 February).

Paula can now see long distances with a pair of spectacles consisting of seven lenses for each eye, with an eighth lens for the left eye to enable her to see short distance.

She can read using a thinner pair. The glasses increase her vision to 40 percent of normal. Mr Feinbloom has also prescribed a third pair for "social" use.

The optometrist said he and his colleague had made similar glasses for about 2,000 patients in the United States. He added that there were about 10,000 people suffering from the same defect in the country, who did not know it could be corrected without surgery.