A week of news - live cataract surgery

Optician was invited by Bausch + Lomb to observe pioneering eye surgery at the Centre for Sight in East Grinstead in London yesterday.

A live feed from the operating theatre was beamed out to optometrists and ophthalmologists in the waiting room next door, with very few grimaces. Although as the hosts stated, optometrists of all people cannot afford to be squeamish about the eye.

For a journalist unused to surgery and phased by the mildest of horror films meanwhile, the seat was much appreciated.

Eye specialist Dr Sheraz Daya fitted an implantable contact lens in one patient's eye, before moving onto cataract surgery for another and even treating a third patient in the same afternoon. Dr Daya has famously been treating the celebrity Katie Piper after her vision was badly damaged in an acid attack.