Frederick N. Griffith's story sounds like the kind of unlikely opera plot he loves.
Baltimore boy is a C student, gets polio, can't move, lives in an iron lung and becomes entranced with medicine. After a year, he recovers, becomes an A student, grows up to become a hospital manager, sees a great need and revolutionizes the disorganized system of making corneas available for transplant. He expands the scope nationally, then globally, and retires, mistakenly thought by many to be one of the world's great ophthalmologists.
In a climax to the story today, 450 friends will honor Griffith, 65, founder of the nonprofit Tissue Banks International (TBI), which includes Medical Eye Bank of Maryland. An international foundation will be announced in his name to continue his 30-year mission of helping the blind see.
"Frederick is so influential worldwide, some doctors think he's the finest corneal surgeon in the world," said Dr. Walter J. Stark, medical director of TBI and director of cornea and cataract services at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute.
Griffith is no doctor and never pretended to be one.
Despite a self-deprecating personality, he agreed to the "bravo" party, to be held at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel only if there would be only one toast. It will be given by old friend Dr. Alfred Sommer, dean of the School of Hygiene and Public Health at Hopkins.
More to his liking, Griffith said, is the foundation: "I am deeply grateful and honored."
About 300 donors have given more than $500,000 to the Frederick N. Griffith Foundation for the Advancement of Transplantation. It aims for $1 million by June for "new computers, refrigeration, instruments, packaging of tissues, training, education," said Kathleen C. Terlizzese, a TBI senior vice president.
The foundation is the 2-year-old idea of Bruce P. Sawyer, board chairman of TBI and executive vice president of Barton Cotton Inc.: "I saw the opportunity to celebrate his career and continue the mission in future years."
One thankful beneficiary of Griffith's work is Mark Edgar, 52, of Davidsonville. The graphics art specialist received cornea transplants in both eyes from donors and the eye bank here because of the progressive disease keratoconus.
"I couldn't see my wife, I couldn't read well, and I made terrible mistakes at work. The improved sight with new corneas was a phenomenal miracle. I could see again," he said.
