Professor Edward Wylęgała and Dr. Dariusz Dobrowolski, from the Silesian Medical University in Katowice, conducted the first in Poland and the third in the world transplant of corneal epithelial stem cells in a child.

The patient was a 10-year-old Kuba, who four years ago suffered from scalding the left eye with lime. A month after the operation, the boy regains his sight in the damaged eye, he can already see the letters.

The District Railway Hospital in Katowice with its University clinical department of ophthalmology is the only place in Eastern Europe where ophthalmic patients have been provided with the latest stem cells therapy. The main stages of therapy are meticulous qualification processes, taking material from a healthy eye; carrying out the breeding at the reference center in Modena, Italy and then transplanting to replace the damaged tissue.