From Darkness to Sight

by Ming Wang

  “The EyeBall is an occasion for all of us to celebrate the spirit of giving and to show that we love those who need our help,” I said. “We are celebrating the remarkable journey of one young orphan girl who has gone from darkness to sight. The world today is not always a very friendly place, but being among the loving, generous people here tonight reminds us that there is still hope for humankind. This last number is a song that, no matter what your ethnicity, culture, or religious beliefs are, reminds us of our vulnerability, our mortality, and our need to believe in an immortal, eternal, almighty Creator.”

  Then one at a time, the members of our ensemble began to play, each musician rendering an interpretation of “Amazing Grace” that reflected his or her own life experience, as well as the eternal quality that transcended them all.

  From Deidre’s cello came deep, melancholy tones whose mournful sound recalled the pain of Maria’s former darkness, as well as the pain that many blind orphan children from around the world still suffer today. It reminded me of the pain I myself had sustained, and how far I had come to be sitting on that stage and performing for the people and country I love.

  Next, Carlos’s classical guitar strummed out a lively and joyful South American interpretation. His version of the song reminded me of the feats our team had achieved, my own life’s light and happy moments, and all the wonderful people I have known, those who have helped me and those I have been blessed to help in return.

  David’s was the only vocal rendition of the song, and it was full of his compassion and love for God. “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.”

  Next I played the song on my Chinese erhu violin, deliberately slowing down the melody, extending each note. I wanted the two strings to convey the essence of life, the adversity I faced during the Cultural Revolution, the pain of discrimination, the hard work, the moments of joy, and the emotions and love that connected all of us.

  Finally, all the musicians joined together to play the song for the fifth and the last time, inviting all the EyeBall guests to sing along. Many people stood up, singing in worship and full of emotion. I could feel the resonance throughout the auditorium, each person expressing the song in his or her own way, based on his or her own life experience, everyone aspiring to be part of something greater than all of us. EyeBall reminds us that no matter what our culture, religion or ethnicities are, we as human beings share more in common than we are different. We all desire the same thing, to love and to be loved.

  Following the EyeBall, we held an after-party at Nashville’s Sunset Grill for key patrons. As I entered the restaurant, I greeted a group of about eighty people that included Wang Foundation board members, participating physicians, medical counsel, musicians, artists, photographers, and event volunteers. At my side throughout the evening was a special woman named Anle Ji.

  As I’ve gotten older, I have finally learned that life is not just work; it is also and more importantly about family, and about finding a proper balance between work and those relationships that mean so much to us all. I have also learned that in order to truly love others, we must first love those who are closest to us, such as our own family members. As I’ve matured in this area, I now spend more time with my son Dennis, my brother Ming-yu and his family, my parents, and my godparents Misha and June. I have come to realize how deeply I love my family. They are my backbone and strength, and their love sustains me in my work. My parents are in their eighties now, and Dad has severe Parkinson’s. In order to better take care of them, I moved both of them in, to live with me, for the rest of their lives. In my youth, my parents have done so much to help me. In their sunset years, I want to take good care of them.

  I also understand now what it is that I truly need to be as a man. After my divorce from Ye-jia, I met Anle, a Chinese-American woman who is beautiful, mature, gentle, caring, supportive, and a dedicated Christian. She is also well-educated and comes from a strong academic family like my own. What Anle brings to my life is what I have always lacked—balance with work, responsibilities, and family time. With Anle’s help, I am learning what it means to support one another and approach life as a team. For the first time in my life, I have been able to be with someone with whom I share a deep and loving connection, and a lifelong passion of wanting to make not only our own lives better, but also the lives of people around us.

  With Anle’s hand in mine, I walked to each group of guests and thanked them for the contributions they made to both the foundation itself and the 2014 EyeBall. When I approached Steve and Lynn Hendrich, we shared with each other the deep gratitude and joy we felt about all God had allowed us to witness and accomplish together during the long two-year journey since they first showed me Maria’s photo.

  And finally I walked up to Maria, who was walking around, chatting with everyone.

  “Would you like to dance?” I asked. “Do you remember the swing dance I taught you?”

  She smiled and nodded, and then handed her glasses to someone. As we started dancing to the Big Band music playing in the background, most of the guests circled around us. In the presence of everyone who had helped her, it seemed fitting for Maria to have an opportunity to showcase her newfound joy. At first, she was shy and timid with so many people watching, but then she bravely took her first step. As Maria warmed up to the music and the rhythm of the dance, she became steadily more comfortable and light on her feet, and her burgundy dress twirled as I spun her around.

  She began to laugh as she danced more and more with abandon. It seemed the cork had finally popped on the joy inside of her that had been bottled up and suppressed by the darkness in which she had lived all these years. Her newly restored sight had already started transforming her life. She was no longer living in an orphanage or facing a destitute life on the streets of Moldova. Instead, she was living in a free and prosperous country, among God’s people and with a family who loved her. She could finally be the fun-loving teenager she was meant to be.

  As we danced, I enjoyed every moment that Maria’s laughter filled the air. I had never seen her laugh so much! Her joy reminded me of what I had felt so long ago when China’s deadly Cultural Revolution finally came to an end. Gone was the darkness, fear, and looming dread of deprtation that hung over me constantly. Gone was the hardship and suffering I endured as I fought against ethnic prejudice. Gone was my impulse to run from the ghosts and darkness in my life.

  My whole life’s experiences—both good and bad—made so much more sense to me now. My character had been shaped by my Eastern origins and my heart and soul had been healed through the faith I received from the West. I was now free to love more fully. By doing what it took to come out of my own darkness, I was able to help others out of theirs. God had blessed me with gifts and abilities that I will continue to use to give back to others in need, especially the blind orphans who need it the most. Maria tossed off her heels and danced with an energy that I found difficult to match. It dawned on me that the surgery that I performed on Maria not only restored her sight, but also liberated her spirit as well.

  Once she was blind, but now she is free.

  About the Author

  Dr. Ming Wang, a Harvard and MIT graduate (MD, magna cum laude), is a world-renowned laser eye surgeon, philanthropist and Kiwanis Nashvillian of the Year. He is one of the few cataract and LASIK surgeons in the world today who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. Dr. Wang has performed well over 55,000 procedures, including those on over 4,000 doctors, so he has been referred to as the “doctors’ doctor.”

  Born on October 24, 1960, Ming grew up in Hangzhou, a city in southeastern China. At age fourteen, his education was suddenly cut short and he faced deportation and a life sentence of hard labor and poverty, a devastating fate that fell upon millions of youth in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). To avoid deportation, Ming learned to play the Chinese violin—called the erhu—and to dance, with the hope of b
eing accepted into one of the communist government’s song and dance troupes. Unsuccessful because the government discovered his plan, he then studied medicine illegally and composed songs expressing his longing for the chance to go back to school and have a future. With the death of the dictator in 1976, the disastrous Cultural Revolution ended and China reopened its colleges after ten years. Ming learned three years of the high-school curriculum in just a few months and gained a coveted admission spot in the University of Science and Technology of China. Ming eventually made his way to the U.S. in 1982, with only $50 and a Chinese-English dictionary in his pocket, but a big American dream in his heart.

  Ming completed his PhD in laser spectroscopy and atomic collision dynamics in 1986 from the University of Maryland at College Park. In 1987, he enrolled in the joint Harvard Medical-school/MIT MD program and a postdoctoral fellowship. Together with Professor George Church, he developed a new way to study DNA-protein interaction in vivo and published a paper in the world-renowned journal Nature. Dr. Wang graduated in 1991, with his MD (magna cum laude) from Harvard and MIT and a first place award for his graduation thesis in biomedical sciences.

  Dr. Wang completed his ophthalmology residency at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, followed by a corneal fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami. In 1997, he was named the founding director of the Vanderbilt Laser Sight Center, and became a full-time faculty member and director of the residency program in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. From 1997 to 2002, Dr. Wang also worked as a panel consultant for the U.S. FDA’s Ophthalmic Device Panel.

  In 2002, Dr. Wang opened his private practice, Wang Vision Institute, which was later renamed Wang Vision 3D Cataract and LASIK Center. He performed the state’s first bladeless all-laser LASIK, laser cataract surgery and Kamra procedure, the U.S. first Intacs procedure for advanced keratoconus, and the world’s first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation. Dr. Wang has published eight textbooks and over one hundred papers, and holds several U.S. patents for his inventions of new biotechnologies to restore sight, including the world’s first amniotic membrane contact lens. He is the recipient of the Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Chinese American Physicians.

  Dr. Wang is currently the only surgeon in Tennessee who performs 3D LASIK (18+), 3D Laser Kamra and Raindrop (45+), 3D Forever Young Lens Surgery (50+) and 3D Laser Cataract Surgery (60+).He established two 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, the Wang Foundation for Christian Outreach to China and the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, which to date has helped patients from over forty states in the U.S. and over fifty five countries worldwide, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge.

  Dr. Wang is the founding president of the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the honorary president of Tennessee American-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the co-founder of the Tennessee Immigrant and Minority Business Group, and co-owner and international president of the Shanghai Aier Eye Hospitals in Shanghai, China, the largest private eye hospital group in China today, with over one hundred locations and a ten percent share of China’s eye care market. In 2005, Dr. Wang performed China’s first bladeless all-laser LASIK, the first in 1.4 billion people.

  A champion amateur ballroom dancer, Dr. Wang is a former finalist in the world ballroom dance championships in the Pro/Am International Open 10-Dance. He still plays the erhu today, and was invited to accompany country-music legend, Dolly Parton, on her CD Those Were the Days. Dr. Wang also used the dance skills he learned during the Cultural Revolution as inspiration for his foundation’s annual sight restoration fundraising event—the EyeBall—which features classical ballroom dance. The EyeBall is now in its tenth year and has drawn attendees from all over the U.S. and around the world.

  An internationally known philanthropist, a conservative activist, and a community leader, Dr. Wang regularly travels throughout the country and around the world to do work related to his two 501(c)(3) non-profit foundations. He is a sought-after public speaker for his two favorite topics, “Appreciating Freedom in America” and “Faith and Science: Friends or Foes?”

  Dr. Wang was recognized for his charity contribution and community service with many awards including NPR’s Philanthropist of the Year Award, the Outstanding Nashvillian of the Year Award from Kiwanis Club and an honorary doctorate degree from Trevecca University.

  Dr. Wang lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Anle Ji, and his parents, Dr. Zhen-sheng Wang and Dr. A-lian Xu.

  Acknowledgments

  This book would not be possible without the dedicated efforts of David Dunham, the Dunham Group, and especially Heather Ebert, who dedicated countless hours to this project, laboring hard and guiding me patiently through the process. Their professionalism, artistry, and counsel were invaluable. Thank you, David and Heather!

  I am grateful to David Fischer, who contributed many valuable ideas, and thoroughly read and assisted in revising the manuscript. I hope to work with David again soon to turn this autobiography into a feature film.

  I appreciate Senator Bill Frist, MD, for contributing the foreword for this book, and for the advice and mentoring he has provided me through the years.

  A very sincere thanks goes to those who endorsed this book, including Dolly Parton; Charlie Daniels; Senator Lamar Alexander; Senator Bill Frist, MD; Mayor Karl Dean; Governor Bill Haslam; Governor Winfield Dunn; and many other friends and colleagues.

  I would like to express earnest gratitude for my friends who spent many hours reading and offering suggestions for this book: Dr. Richard Nelson, Dr. James Hiatt, Charles Grummon, Larry Tomczak, David and Megan McCullough, Jerry Moll, Tony Roberts, Tony Ashley, Tim Skow, Dave and Jan Dalton, Suzanne Gentry, Kip Dodson, Steve Ludwig, John Bransford, Kane Harrison, Shirley Zeitlin, Lynda and David Evjen, Rudy Kalis and Robert Swope.

  I am thankful to all the teachers, mentors, and colleagues that I have had through my career, including James McNesby, PhD; John Weiner, PhD; George Church, PhD; Larry Donoso, MD, PhD; Scheffer Tseng, MD, PhD; Richard Forster, MD,; William Culbertson, MD; Don Gass, MD; Spencer Thornton, MD; Arun Gulani, MD; Ilan Cohen, MD; David Chang, MD; Aleksandar Stonjavic, MD; Francis Muier, MD; Guy Guzerin, MD; Li Li; Bang Chen; Bao-sung Liu, MD; Michael Zhou, MD; Xiao-bing Wang, MD, Tracy Swartz, OD; Helen Boerman, OD; Amy Waymire, OD; Shanna Hill, OD; Dora Mathe, OD; Ara Sudtelgte, OD; Megan Blemker, OD and Gretchen Blemker, OD. If they had not challenged me constantly to pursue knowledge and make new discoveries, I might not have fulfilled my dream of becoming a doctor.

  I would like to acknowledge the entire team at Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center: Dr. Sarah Connolly, OD; Dr. Nathan Rock, OD; Dr. David Zimmerman, OD; Heather Brown; Leona Walthorn; Tammy Cardwell; Ana Martinez; Suzanne Gentry; Cameron Daniels; Scott Haugen; Eric Nesler; Crystal Micillo; Ashley Patty; Beth Riley, COA; Skyler Nelson; Kayla Sinyard, COT; Clare Stolberg, RN; Haley Wilson; James Wright; Chloe Jenkins; Amanda Knight; Shannon McClung, COA; Anle Ji; Dr. Li Jiang, MD, Dr. Hui Zhao, MD and Dr. Benyamin Ebrahim, MD. Each of you holds a special place in my life and work. We are changing lives together, and I am so thankful for all of you.

  I am so appreciative of the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration board of directors, and of all the foundation’s medical council doctors who have donated their time and resources to help rescue so many of the foundation’s patients from darkness.

  I am deeply thankful for the foundation’s patients and their families, who have entrusted their eyesight to me and traveled on the journey with me from darkness to sight: Francisco; Carole Klein; Clementina; Brad and Jackie Barnes; Kajal and Grace; Bobby Joel Case; Margarette, Dave, and Melody Snodgrass; Anna, Lisa, and Jeff Post; Anna and Beth Ann; Matthew and Mrs. Higgins; Wade and Mrs. Cook; Chris Dixon; Thomas Brewington; Randy Mathenia; and finally Maria, Steve, and Lynn Hendrich. With God’s grace, together we have achieved the impossible!
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br />   I want to extend my most heartfelt thanks to my family, whose love and support made all of this possible: my father Dr. Zhen-sheng Wang, my mother Dr. A-lian Xu, my brother Dr. Ming-yu Wang, his wife Peggy and his daughter Yong Yong, my son Dennis and his sweetheart Alisa, my god parents Misha Bartnovsky and June Rudolph, and my wife Anle Ji, without whose thoughtfulness, care, and love I might never have been able to accomplish what I have done and to write this story. Anle also spent countless hours helping to organize the photos for this book. Family and friends are an important lifeline in one’s journey, and I have continued to think about and remember each one of you fondly as I have encountered my triumphs and failures in life. We have stuck together and supported one another through it all, and I love each one of you dearly.

  Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank God for delivering me from darkness and surrounding me with such glorious light!

  Ming Wang, MD, PhD

  Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 2016

  How to Help the Sight Foundation

  Founded in 2003 by Ming Wang, MD, PhD, and located in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The foundation’s mission is to provide reconstructive eye surgeries to restore sight to indigent patients who otherwise could not afford such procedures.

  The foundation consists of a team of medical council doctors (ophthalmologists and optometrists) who donate their services, and a board of directors made up of community leaders and philanthropists.

  There are several ways you can help the foundation: