Patricia's Vision

The Doctor Who Saved Sight

Sterling Children's Books

(pub. 1.7.2020) 

48 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Michelle Lord
       and illustrator:  

Alleanna Harris

 

C haracter:  Patricia Bath

O verview:

       

    "Born in the 1940s, Patricia Bath dreamed of helping people as a doctor, even though that wasn't a  career option for most women at that time —especially African-American women. This empowering biography follows Dr. Bath in her quest to save and restore sight to the blind, and her decision to “choose miracles” when everyone else had given up hope. Along the way, she cofounded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, invented a specialized laser for removing cataracts, and became the first African-American woman doctor to receive a medical patent."

T antalizing taste: 

     "Dr. Bath couldn't wait to begin her career as an ophthalmologist. She moved across the country join the famed Jules Stein Eye Institute in California. Walking into work that first morning, she had no idea she was the first woman on the faculty! Her eyes widened upon finding her new office ... away from the others, in the basement, next to the lab animals ...

     She marched upstairs and demanded a workspace equal to what the other new professors had.

    'Taking the high road may be arduous and long, but it will lead to justice and triumph.'"

 
And something more:  At the back of the book, the More About Dr. Patricia Bath explains that "when Patricia applied to college, the interviewer told her that an education was a waste for women....As an intern at Harlem Hospital, Dr. Bath discovered that blindness was twice as common in black patients compared to white patients. She came up with a new idea she called community ophthamology. It offered eye care and blindness prevention to underserved communities. Dr. Bath lived her lifelong goal of helping the blind. Countless people have benefitted from her Laserphaco Probe."