HOLCOMB C3-R cures bobsledder of impending blindness, helps win gold at 2010 Winter Olympics

Boxer Wachler Vision InstituteApr 7 2010

It was an amazing triumph of the will, when the U.S. Bobsled Team, led by captain Steve Holcomb, took home the first Gold in 62 years at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. An amazing feat, yet only the tip of the iceberg, for 2 years prior Holcomb underwent a brand new procedure to cure his impending blindness. This revolutionary treatment, the C3-R, invented by Beverly Hills based Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, MD of the Boxer Wachler Vision Institute, cured the athlete's vision which in turn helped spur the team on to Gold. In honor of the victory and Holcomb's faith in the procedure, Dr. Boxer Wachler renamed the treatment, the HOLCOMB C3-R, the first time that a treatment has been named for an athlete who made it famous.  Celebrating Holcomb's remarkable comeback victory by renaming the procedure is a fitting tribute, says Dr. Boxer Wachler, who hopes that Holcomb's triumphant journey will inspire others with challenges of any kind to seek out innovative solutions.

Kerataconus, a devastating degenerative eye disease that weakens the cornea (the outer lens of the eye) led to the Olympian's virtual blindness. Worried that he would risk his teammates' safety, Holcomb officially retired from his beloved sport in June of 2007. But the U.S. Olympic Team, U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation and his teammates and coaches would not let him stay retired. While searching for alternatives to invasive and painful cornea transplant surgery, the team discovered Dr. Boxer Wachler and his non-surgical treatment, C3-R, a combination of vitamin applications and light which strengthens the cornea.  The procedure was then followed by placing an insertable contact lens inside the eyes in order to further improve vision. Once Holcomb met Dr. Boxer Wachler, he was sold and with the clock to Vancouver ticking, he underwent the treatments.  Thirty minutes later, the athlete could see.

And the rest is medical and Olympic history. Steve and his "Night Train" went on to win the World Bobsled Championship in 2009, the first for the U.S. in 50 years and then in Vancouver in February, it was Olympic Gold.