News
| Patient stories
So that the GOOD WORK can go on
Sharyn Dowd is a busy associate pastor, ministering
to numerous church members and working in various
mission activities. Every day brings a set of challenges
and ongoing involvement with community and outreach
organizations. She constantly sees to the needs of others—
checking on the sick, the bereaved, the impoverished, and
those who are seeking community and connection.
Dowd knows very well how to take care of others in her
multiple roles. She currently serves as Pastor for Caring and
Serving Ministries at Decatur’s First Baptist Church. But during her second year in EmKeratoconus and corneal
ory’s Graduate Division of
Religion PhD program in
transplants affect the front
1981, Dowd was diagnosed
curvature of the eye and
with bilateral keratoconus
by specialists at the Emory
therefore have significant
Eye Center. She needed,
impact on how light focuses
at that point, for others to
into the eye. Specially designed
take care of her.
As her keratoconus
contact lenses can substantially
progressed, Dowd was
improve visual acuity beyond
told she needed corneal
transplants, a significant
what is possible with spectacles.
inconvenience for any
Sclera lenses are fluid-filled
student undergoing the
and can be used therapeutically
rigors of graduate school,
particularly for a student
to treat severe dryness as well
with limited funds. With
as correct high degrees of
financial help, first from
the surgeon who dropped
irregular astigmatism. These
his fee and then from the
lenses offer very good comfort
Georgia Lions Lighthouse
and maximize a person’s visual
Foundation, she was able to
cover the costs not covered
potential for conditions with
by her student insurance.
irregular cornea shapes.
She was most grateful.
Dowd was able to go
—Michael Ward
on with her studies and
to an impressive career in academics as a professor of New
Testament at Lexington Theological Seminary (Kentucky)
and Baylor University (Texas). While at Baylor, she was also
a member of the pastoral staff of Calvary Baptist Church,
where she was responsible for leading ministries in the
church’s lower-income, racially mixed neighborhood.
22 Emory Eye | 2015
Life was fulfilling, and Dowd was able to make a difference to those she taught and ministered to throughout three
decades of serving.
Fast forward to 2013, and Dowd was again living in
Atlanta. She developed severe dry eye problems that were
not corrected by lubricating and medicated eye drops. The
dryness was significant enough that she was in pain each day,
and the pain limited her ability to wear contact lenses and
therefore, to see.
At Emory, cornea specialist John Kim suggested that she
see contact lens specialist Michael Ward about the possibility of scleral contact lenses. She did, and, as she says of the
lenses, “they are rather expensive,” but “they have completely
solved my eye problem.”
“Dr. Dowd was becoming contact lens intolerant. Therefore, she was visually handicapped and incapable of functioning on a day-to-day level,” says Ward. “With the new scleral
lenses, she was again able to attain her normal level of activity.”
“I can say that had it not been for the successful transplants initially and the various specialized contact lenses that
I have worn during the past 33 years H