
An Australian case report uploaded as a video to the British Journal of Ophthalmology (BJO) website has had a far broader reach than anticipated. Ophthalmologist Simon Chen had submitted the report about a unique approach he’d taken to repairing a fish hook injury repair.
He was surprised to receive a note recognising his work from both the patient and the patient’s wife – two years after the video was uploaded.“I presume a bored teenager found the video on the BJO website, copied it, then posted it to youtube where it went viral (and) has garnered nearly a million views and nearly 2,000 comments,” Dr. Chen told mivision.
“The patient ended up with VA = 6/6 but I never saw him again after the op (the senior house office did the post-op review). Two years after the operation, the patient actually came across video and sent me the email below.”
“Dear Dr Chen, I was the patient for the above operation. This is just a note to say ‘thank you’ as I don’t recall meeting you when you operated on me so it was good to see how you did the removal on the internet. I think I was very lucky however, I do now have to wear glasses, but only when fishing! One other thing, I never got the fly back, but then I probably wouldn’t have had much good luck with it, so you can keep it. Thanks again for your skills…”