Mary Ann Franco, 70, originally lost her vision due to a spinal injury she suffered in a car accident. But now, after hitting her head during a fall, she can see again after twenty years of total blindness.
“I was fully blind – all I could see was blackness,” she told The Independent.
“I was in my living room, going over to the door. My foot caught on a tile, and it flipped me. I hit my head in the back, and hit it on something else, maybe the fireplace,” she said.
After spending months incapacitated in a neck brace, Franco's most recent surgery miraculously ended up restoring her vision. Getting her vision back was so unexpected that Franco didn’t even realize she was seeing for the first time in twenty years until she berated a nurse in purple.
“I looked towards the foot of my bed and said, ‘Hey, lady in purple, get me something for pain.' I was in so much pain, I wasn’t nice – and I’m always nice,” Franco said.
“My niece said, 'What did you say?’ and I realized I could see. They gave me more medication, and the next morning I could see all the trees, and white houses below from my small window on my side in hospital.
“I was the happiest woman in the whole world. It was wonderful. Everyone came in and said: ‘You’re the miracle lady,'” Franco explained.
“It really is truly a miracle,” said Franco’s neurosurgeon, Dr. John Afshar. “I’ve never seen or heard anything like it.”
Even more amazing is the fact that Franco can now also see the full spectrum of color after being born colorblind.
Watch a video of the original news report by WPBF below: