Blind people and people with visual impairments who were using a retinal implant to gain some vision have been abandoned by the company that manufactured and sold the medical devices.

Second Sight is no longer supporting the implants and has declared the devices obsolete.

It’s left people with the implants with a choice to leave defunct tech in their brains or having it surgically removed.

The full story is at IEEE Spectrum and details how the lives of patients have been impacted by the failure of a business, a company that had, in the words of one patient, “fantastic technology” but that couldn’t manage to keep solvent.

This came to my attention because of a twitter post by my friend, Ryan Knighton, author of the memoir, Cockeyed.

My specialist said I was eligible for this and encouraged me to consider it. I did. Within minutes I said no thanks. My reason, among others, was this nightmare. I spoke about it on CBC. I was the downer guest. The other guest had the implant. I hope she’s OK https://t.co/YyfuaLlgxO

— Ryan Knighton (@ryanknighton) August 29, 2022