YouTube’s most subscribed individual just cured 1,000 people’s blindness by paying for their simple eye surgery.
Jimmy Donaldson, a 24-year-old known online by his moniker MrBeast, released a video detailing the scores of people from the US and across world whose severe cataracts he had removed with the help of a the non-profit eye care organization, See.
MrBeast also gave away $10,000 to a number of patients, bought one a Tesla, and even donated $50,000 to another’s college fund. He also donated $100,000 to See.
Donaldson is known for his outlandish stunt videos – which include him being buried alive for 50 hours, and another wherein the last person to take their hand off a private jet gets to keep the plane. In addition to being YouTube’s most subscribed individual, he is also one of the website’s highest earners.
In the video, MrBeast shows patients getting their bandages removed after surgery, and shows their reaction. For many of them it was the first time they had seen properly in decades.
One patient was a man named Charlie, who’s deteriorated vision prevented him from working anymore. After receiving the surgery, Charlie is able to see again and MrBeast gives him $10,000.
‘I just haven’t been me for the last 62 years,’ one patient tells MrBeast in the video, ‘I can actually see your face.’
Another man said the first thing he wanted to see when his bandages came off was his son, who he said had been his ‘rock’ throughout his vision problems.
‘Seeing him, seeing his face, you know, that’s what I miss the most,’ he said.
As soon as he came out of surgery, his son was there and the two embraced in tears.
‘I can see everybody’s facial features now,’ he said, wiping away a tear. ‘It’s a little blurry with my tears coming out.’
The surgery used in the video appeared to be Phacoemulsification, which is one of the procedures Sees specializes in.
In the procedure, doctors make a small incision in the eye and vacuum out the eye’s clouded cataract lens, and then inserts a new artificial lens.
Sufferers from severe cataracts are not entirely blind – they can still see light – but their vision can be so blurry that the basic shapes of objects are indiscernible.
Phacoemulsification can cost up to $6,000 for patients without insurance.
Another one of MrBeasts patients is a boy named Jeremiah, who had been blind in his right eye since birth. The cataract he was born with prevented the eye from ever seeing light, which meant the surgery only had a 50 percent shot at success, MrBeast explained in the video.
Jeremiah broke down in tears after he removed his bandages to find the surgery worked, and then MrBeast presented him with a $50,000 check to put towards his college tuition.
‘I don’t even think this is real, like I’m waiting to wake up,’ he said.
MrBeast also featured a teenager named Satchel, who was partially blind since birth and nearly lost all his vision in a go-cart accident.
‘All I see is like blur and color, I can barely see the shapes,’ Satchel explained.
He told MrBeast that he had never been able to drive because of his vision, and that he found himself stuck at home because of it.
At the end of the video after the surgery was successful, MrBeast gave Jeremiah a Tesla.
MrBeast and See also brought their surgery around the world to cure the vision of people from Namibia, Mexico, Honduras, Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam, Kenya, and Jamaica.
On its website, See explained that cataracts affect about 65.2million people around the world, and that in 80 percent of those cases vision loss can be moderate to severe.
Procedures to cure cataracts like the one detailed in MrBeast’s are relatively simple, but 99 percent of the world doesn’t have access to healthcare and services to treat the condition.
