A near-blind pensioner has told how a massive stroke left him with perfect eyesight.
Malcolm Darby, 70, had worn thick glasses from the age of two after a bout of measles caused inflammation of his optic nerves and left him "blind as a bat".
His luck changed dramatically, however, after a stroke in May last year at his home in Leicestershire, central England.
Emergency services rushed the retired architect to hospital and surgeons worked for two hours to remove a blood clot in his neck that was blocking 80 percent of his right carotid artery, the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK reports.
When he awoke in the intensive care unit, Mr Darby reached for his glasses and found they now revealed only a fuzzy blur.
"Then when I took them off I noticed a nurse carrying a newspaper upside down and I could read what it said," he was quoted saying.
"I didn't register at first and then suddenly I realised I could see."
The grandfather-of-four could not tell others of his incredible fortune at first because the stroke meant he was unable to speak.
"I was pointing at things on the ward and shouting gibberish at people. I wanted to tell people I could see," he said.
Eventually a nurse handed him some paper and a pen and he was finally able to share his startling news.
Doctors are unsure why Mr Darby's vision has been restored but one theory is that the operation eased swelling on the optic nerves that had been damaged when he had measles, the Mail reports.
However, Mr Darby can no longer speak French fluently and he has lost his aptitude for arithmetic.
"It's a small price to pay to have perfect vision," he said.
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