Health

David Paton, Creator of Flying Eye Hospital, Dies at 94

Published

12 months ago

April 26, 2025

David Paton, Creator of Flying Eye Hospital, Dies at 94

David Paton, an idealistic and innovative ophthalmologist who started Project Orbis, converting a United Airlines jet into a flying hospital that took surgeons to developing countries to operate on patients and educate local doctors, died on April 3 at his home in Reno, Nev. He was 94.

His death was confirmed by his son, Townley.

The son of a prominent New York eye surgeon whose patients included the Shah of Iran and the financier J. Pierpont Morgan’s horse, Dr. Paton (pronounced PAY-ton) was teaching at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University in the early 1970s when he became discouraged by increasing cases of preventable blindness in far-flung places.

“More eye doctors were needed,” he wrote in his memoir, “Second Sight: Views from an Eye Doctor’s Odyssey” (2011), “but equally important was the need to beef up the existing doctors’ medical education.”

But how?

He considered shipping trunks of equipment — almost the way a circus would — but that presented logistical challenges. He pondered the possibility of using a medical ship like the one that Project Hope, a humanitarian group, sent around the world. That was too slow for him.

“Shortly after the first moon landing in 1969, thinking big was becoming a reality,” Dr. Paton wrote.

And then a moonshot idea struck him: “Could an aircraft be the answer? A large enough aircraft could be converted into an operating theater, a teaching classroom and all the necessary facilities.”

All he needed was a plane. He asked the military to donate one, but that was a nonstarter. He approached several universities for the money to buy one, but administrators turned him down, saying the idea wasn’t feasible.

“David was willing to take risks that others wouldn’t,” Bruce Spivey, the founding president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said in an interview. “He was charming. He was inspiring. And he didn’t quit.”

Dr. Paton decided to raise funds on his own. In 1973, he founded Project Orbis with a group of wealthy, well-connected society figures like the Texas oilman Leonard F. McCollum and Betsy Trippe Wainwright, the daughter of the Pan American World Airways founder Juan Trippe.

In 1980, Mr. Trippe helped persuade the United Airlines chief executive Edward Carlson to donate a DC-8 jet. The United States Agency for International Development contributed $1.25 million to convert the plane into a hospital with an operating room, recovery area and a classroom equipped with televisions, so local medical workers could watch surgeries.

Surgeons and nurses volunteered their services, agreeing to spend two to four weeks abroad. The first flight, in 1982, was to Panama. The plane then went to Peru, Jordan, Nepal and beyond. Mother Teresa once visited. So did the Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

In 1999, The Sunday Times of London’s magazine sent a reporter to Cuba to write about the plane, now known as the Flying Eye Hospital. One of the patients who arrived was a 14-year-old girl named Julia.

“In developed nations, Julia’s condition would have been little more than an irritation,” The Sunday Times article said. “It is almost certain she had uveitis, an inflammation inside the eye, which can be cleared with drops. In Britain, even cats are easily treated.”

Her doctor was Edward Holland, a prominent eye surgeon.

“Holland uses tiny knives to make openings that allow him to get his instruments into the eye, and soon he is pulling at Julia’s scar tissue,” The Sunday Times article said. “As the tissue is pulled away, a dark and liquid pupil, unseen for a decade, is revealed. It is an intimate and moving moment; this is medicine’s chamber music. Next, he breaks up and removes the cataract, and implants a lens so that the eye will keep its shape.”

The Cuban ophthalmologists watching in the viewing room applauded.

But after the surgery, Julia still couldn’t see.

“And then a minor miracle begins,” the article said. “As the swelling begins to go down, she makes discoveries about the world around her. Minute by minute she can see something new.”

David Paton was born on Aug. 16, 1930, in Baltimore, and grew up in Manhattan. His father, Richard Townley Paton, specialized in corneal transplants and founded the Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration. His mother, Helen (Meserve) Paton, was an interior designer.

In his memoir, he described growing up “among the fine, intellectually sharp, widely traveled persons of the Establishment.” His father practiced on Park Avenue. His mother threw parties at their home on the Upper East Side.

David attended the Hill School, a boarding school in Pottstown, Pa. There, he met James A. Baker III, a Texan who later became secretary of state for President George H.W. Bush. They were roommates at Princeton University and lifelong best friends.

“David came from a very privileged background, but he was down to earth and just a very likable guy,” Mr. Baker said in an interview. “He had his objectives in life straight. He was a hell of a lot better student than I was.”

After graduating from Princeton in 1952, David earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. He worked in senior positions at the Wilmer Eye Institute and served as chairman of the ophthalmology department at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

In 1979, while still trying to procure a plane for Project Orbis, he became the medical director of the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Among my duties,” he wrote in his memoir, “was providing eye care for many of the princes and princesses of the kingdom — about 5,000 of each, I was told — and it seemed that all of them insisted on being treated exclusively by the doctor in charge, no matter how minor their complaint.”

Dr. Paton’s marriages to Jane Sterling Treman and Jane Franke ended in divorce. He married Diane Johnston in 1985. She died in 2022.

In addition to his son, he is survived by two granddaughters.

Dr. Paton left his role as medical director of Project Orbis in 1987, after a dispute with the board of directors. That year, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Although his official connection with the organization had ended, he occasionally served as an informal adviser.

Now called Orbis International, the organization is on its third plane, an MD-10 donated by Federal Express.

From 2014 to 2023, Orbis performed more than 621,000 surgeries and procedures, according to its most recent annual report, and offered more than 424,000 training sessions to doctors, nurses and other providers.

“The plane is just such a unique venue,” Dr. Hunter Cherwek, the organization’s vice president of clinical services and technologies, said in an interview. “It was just an incredibly bold and visionary idea.”

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Health

Best Healthy Foods for Weight Loss After 50, Including Cheese and Bread!

Published

10 hours ago

April 14, 2026

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Best Healthy Foods for Weight Loss After 50, Including Cheese and Bread!

Best Healthy Foods for Weight Loss and Fat Burn After 50

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Health

Popular weight-loss medications linked to hidden side effects, study finds

Published

11 hours ago

April 14, 2026

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Popular weight-loss medications linked to hidden side effects, study finds

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In a sweeping analysis of more than 400,000 Reddit posts, researchers have revealed some little-known GLP-1 side effects.

GLP-1 receptor agonists — such as semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy), and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) — have been most commonly associated with gastrointestinal side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation.

A new study published in Nature Health, however, uncovered some overlooked effects.

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University of Pennsylvania researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze more than five years of Reddit posts from more than 67,000 people taking the popular drugs for diabetes or weight loss.

While clinical trials are still the “gold standard,” the researchers noted that Reddit community feedback reflects a different population.

“People often use medications differently than they’re prescribed, so it’s also important to look at real-world usage, which can diverge from usage in a clinical trial,” lead researcher Neil Sehgal, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, told Fox News Digital. “So there are many possible reasons we’re seeing signals that the trials may have missed.”

Overlooked effects

Nearly half of the users reported one or more side effects. The most common were nausea, vomiting and constipation, which aligned with what clinical trials found, according to Sehgal.

“We’re almost certainly capturing a skewed slice of the full picture.”

“We did notice a few side effects that have not previously been reported for these drugs,” he told Fox News Digital.

“For example, about 4% of users who described side effects reported menstrual irregularities. Other Redditors described unusual temperature-related symptoms, like chills or hot flashes.”

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Nearly 13% of users also experienced psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety, depression and insomnia. More than 5% also complained of abdominal pain, acid reflux, headache and dizziness.

“Fatigue was also the second most commonly reported symptom overall, but has met relatively few reporting thresholds in existing trials,” Seghal noted. “This gap between what patients are self-reporting online and what gets captured in trials is really what motivated this whole line of work.”

Clinical context

Dr. Sue Decotiis, a New York City-based board-certified weight-loss physician, noted that many of the reported symptoms, such as disorientation and fatigue, are most likely due to dehydration and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

“People often use medications differently than they’re prescribed, so it’s also important to look at real-world usage, which can diverge from usage in a clinical trial,” the lead researcher said. (iStock)

“Patients should be carefully monitored using a structured protocol that ensures proper nutrition and adequate hydration, ideally under the direct supervision of a physician experienced in metabolism and weight loss,” Decotiis, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.

“Additionally, body composition analysis can help identify issues such as muscle loss, excessive water loss or insufficient fat loss.”

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A significant concern, according to the doctor, is that many individuals are accessing these medications through online platforms or without receiving appropriate medical care.

“In my experience treating thousands of patients with various GLP-1 medications, complications are rare and typically occur only when patients are noncompliant,” she added.

Study limitations

As the data came from Reddit users, who tend to be younger, primarily male and mostly based in the U.S., it may not represent everyone taking these medications, the researchers noted.

“In my experience treating thousands of patients with various GLP-1 medications, complications are rare and typically occur only when patients are noncompliant,” a weight-loss doctor shared. (iStock)

“And even within Reddit, the people who post about their side effects are probably not typical of everyone on the medication,” Sehgal said. “If you had a good experience, you’re less likely to be writing about it online. So we’re almost certainly capturing a skewed slice of the full picture.”

The researchers also noted that the study can’t prove the drug caused the reported symptoms.

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“To be clear, we can’t say for certain whether these drugs are causing menstrual irregularities,” Sehgal said. “Patients on Reddit aren’t going to self-report every symptom they have, and they may also report things that aren’t actually linked to the medications. So it’s important to treat this as hypothesis-generating signals and do more research.”

The researchers noted that the study can’t prove the drug caused the reported symptoms. (iStock)

The study also didn’t include GLP-1 dosage, duration of the medication and symptoms, or other health conditions the users experienced. There is also the chance that the AI tools misunderstood meanings or context, the researchers noted.

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The results must be confirmed with more rigorous research, Sehgal said. “That’s how we’ll get real answers about prevalence and causality, which social media data alone can’t provide.”

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“These are signals, not conclusions – but I do think it’s always worth talking to your doctor about anything unexpected you’re experiencing while on a new medication, even if you’re not sure if it’s related,” he advised. “So if something feels off, say something.”

Melissa Rudy is senior health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@fox.com.

Health

Cancer risk linked to common blood-related condition, research reveals

Published

23 hours ago

April 13, 2026

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Cancer risk linked to common blood-related condition, research reveals

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Anemia, a common blood disorder, may be a major risk factor for developing cancer.

That’s according to new research from Sweden, which sought to discover whether newly developed anemia is an early warning sign of cancer or death from any cause.

The study, published in BMJ Journals, looked at registry data from more than 380,000 Swedish adults – half were people with new-onset anemia and the other half were the same age and gender, but did not have anemia.

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All participants were over 18 years old and cancer-free at the start of the study.

The results showed that people with incident anemia – new cases occurring over a specific period – had a significantly higher chance of being diagnosed with cancer, especially in the first three months, according to a press release. This included 6.2% of men and 2.8% of women.

Anemia, a common blood disorder, may be a major risk factor for developing cancer. (iStock)

Individuals with anemia also had a much higher chance of death during the 18-month follow-up.

Specific types of anemia were individually linked to disease progression and mortality, the researchers discovered.

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Microcytic anemia – where the red blood cells are smaller than normal – was more frequently linked to cancer, especially types of disease that impact the digestive system and the blood.

Macrocytic anemia, a type of anemia where the red blood cells are larger than normal, was more strongly linked to overall mortality than cancer.

The researchers concluded in the study that new-onset anemia is a “strong and sustained risk marker” for both incident cancer and all-cause mortality. (iStock)

The researchers concluded in the study that new-onset anemia is a “strong and sustained risk marker” for both incident cancer and all-cause mortality.

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Lead study author Elinor Nemlander, researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at the Karolinska Institutet, commented on the findings in a press release from the Swedish medical university.

“We found that both the risk of cancer and the risk of death are highest during the first months after anemia is detected, but that the increased risk persists later during follow-up as well,” she said. “Our findings suggest that anemia may be a sign of underlying disease rather than a condition in its own right.”

Specific types of anemia were individually linked to disease progression and mortality, the researchers discovered. (iStock)

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Nemlander noted that measures like red blood cell size are already “routinely available” in primary care, and that the study highlights how this existing data can be used to identify early risk.

“At the same time, the elevated risks persist over time, underscoring the need for structured follow-up and clear plans for continued evaluation, even when cancer is not initially identified,” she said.

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As the study was observational, it shows an association, but does not prove that anemia causes cancer or death.

The research also did not measure for all causes of anemia, including alcohol use, malnutrition, chronic liver disease, inflammatory conditions and gynecological blood loss.

“Some of the results may also be influenced by who gets tested, underlying illnesses and differences in how anemia is evaluated in different healthcare settings,” Nemlander added.

Angelica Stabile is a lifestyle reporter for Fox News Digital.