MIAMI METROZOO

Josephine is 42 years old, weights 70 kilos and is the oldest gorilla who lives at Metrozoo, in Miami. She practically did not see anymore, did not recognize food or her partners.

In the beginning of October, human eye doctor Dr. Frank Spektor, from Kendall district, Miami, supported by a vet team, promoted what three million North-American people did last year: to put an end on catarats with a surgery and put high-technology plastic lenses, with the size of a child finger nail, to recovery vision.

This surgery would cost USD 10 thousand, due to the age of Josephine. North-American Medicare system to old people would have to cover it, but it was not necessary as long as all the professionals who participated of the medical procedure donated their time and laboratory Alcon sent all the equipments, medicine and technicians that were necessary.

Eye doctor Dr. Spektor, 59 years old with a 32-year medical experience, considered the surgery to be a success. “The catarats were very firm, like two baseball balls and with the same level of depth measurement. However, her eyes are very similar to human beings’”.

The same procedure had already been done in other two North-American zoos: Dallas and Salt Lake City. They had to give her a strong dose of anesthetics, but within an hour Josephine was back to her enclosure. And in the next day she was already socializing with her four-gorilla group, composed by Alice, Fredrika, Kumbuka and J. Rather.