Flood victim has vision restored with help from free clinic

After losing almost everything in last year's flood, Larry Benters had one thing restored.

Benters, 58, of Cedar Rapids, said he owes his eyesight to Dr. David Muller and his team with the eye clinic at the Community Health Free Clinic, 947 14th Ave. SE.

“I almost couldn't see; I could make out shapes,” Benters said. “I bought the strongest pair of eyeglasses you could buy without a prescription, and then the flood came and I couldn't see at all.”

He was considered legally blind before finding help at the eye clinic, which opened in January 2008.

“I had to be led everywhere, could only do the basics of personal hygiene (and) took plenty of falls until I promised not to move without help,” Benters wrote in a letter to Darlene Schmidt, executive director of the free clinic.

He called his years without sight “very humbling,” as he relied on others for assistance eating and even being escorted to the bathroom.

Benters was renting a home on K Street SW when the flood hit in June 2008. Family heirlooms, including a hand-stitched quilt from his grandmother and his father's retirement watch, were gone.

“There was nothing that could be saved,” Benters said.

His 17-year-old cat, Cally, died in the floodwaters.

A friend's mother, who took in Benters for 2-1/2 months, heard about the new eye clinic.

With no health insurance and no income, Benters came to the clinic, where he was seen by Muller.

Muller, an ophthalmologist at Iowa Eye Center in Cedar Rapids, and his wife, Amy, an ophthalmology technician, started the eye clinic with help from a $100,000 matching grant from the Hall-Perrine Foundation.

A basement room in the free clinic was renovated for the eye practice, where about 800 patients have been seen since its inception. Muller and his wife see up to 15 patients on most Tuesday afternoons.

“You never know what there will be or how many there will be or how serious they'll be,” he said.

Muller stressed the teamwork involved, citing Linn County Anesthesia and Surgery Center of Cedar Rapids, which donate services for surgery.

Staff and his partners at the Iowa Eye Center also help, he said, along with free clinic staff, such as Mimz Grabau of Marion, who does the scheduling, and many volunteers.

Muller recalled Benters being led into the examining room for his first appointment. He was diagnosed with cataracts. Muller operated in September 2008 on one eye and implanted a lens.

“Within a few hours, I was seeing color again,” Benters said. “Within a few days, I didn't have to be escorted to the bathroom anymore.”

Because of health problems, it was almost one year before the other cataract was removed. The free clinic is helping Benters with his health issues, too, which include diabetes.

Not since he was 6-years-old has he seen colors so vivid, Benters said, recalling the improvement.

“I saw Christmas in its entirety as it should be seen,” he said. “It was like I was a kid, again.”