TAMPA, Fla. — Four times a week, an alarm clock rouses Jerry and Marie Woody at the ungodly hour of 3:30 a.m.
The couple dress quickly and skip breakfast. It takes them 15 minutes to get to the Lions Eye Institute in Ybor City. Marie jumps out and returns with an inch-thick foam cooler marked “perishable” and “medical emergency” that she gingerly places in the back seat. Soon they’re headed to everywhere from Mount Dora to Naples. Jerry always drives. There’s no stopping.
The precious cargo in the cooler are corneas harvested from donors after they die. They’re used for corneal transplants — keratoplasty — to restore vision in those suffering from conditions such as glaucoma, damaged eye tissue or complications from cataract surgeries.
