Mom Gives Eye To Blind Son As Dying Wish

Son Gets Extremely Unusual Gift From Late Mom

Many parents hope to help their children see the world more clearly, but one Miami mother was literally able to make that happen in her dying wish.

She always told me I’ve got great eyes and you're going to get one of them,” Juan Aguirre, 39 and legally blind in one eye, told NBC6 about his mother who donated one of her corneas to him after a fatal heart attack.

It's been three weeks since the successful transplant, and Aguirre's sight has already markedly improved although the full effects won't be known for six months. Watch the NBC 6 report above.

Aguirre lost his vision in one eye when a drunk motorcyclist hit him as a 5-year-old in his native Cuba, according to the Miami Herald.

When his mother passed away at age 61 last month, Aguirre went to Miami's acclaimed Bascom Palmer Eye Institute to undergo the surgery.

It’s wonderful and overwhelming at the same time,” he told the Herald. “I look at my face, and I know a part of her eyes are part of me now. I know that she’ll be with me forever.”

His mother, who "will always be remembered as the boisterous, social soul that always brought people together" according to her obituary, not only gave the gift of sight to her son -- she also gave the gift of life to others through liver and kidney donations.

Before You Go

Double-Leg Transplant

Amazing Transplants

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot