brumar_lv wrote:
Read an article in latest Vanity Fair by D. Dunne who was at the
Wynn Resort grand opening. He had a couple of interesting tidbits.
First, I knew Steve Wynn had eye problems, but Dunne says he is
essentially blind today. He was unable to see his knife/fork etc at
a dinner Dunne attended. I did not know it was that serious. It's
truly amazing he was able to do his resort project.
This was the first I had heard of this condition. It's sobering
indeed ... I think in time I could learn to cope with many physical
impairments (for example, negotiating with a wheel chair ... although
I'll defer to Jean on that one), but the idea of functioning with
impaired eyesight is chilling.
A little Googling reveals that Wynn's condition is progressive, with
an initial onset at age 29, as noted in this excerpt from a 1998 article:
"For Wynn, the stakes are equally high. Not only is building in
Atlantic City important to the growth of his company -- especially
after Connecticut and Detroit rebuffed him in the past three years --
but the marina project is likely to be the last major piece of
construction Wynn will ever see. Retinitis pigmentosa, diagnosed when
he was 29, is gradually robbing Wynn of his eyesight. In four years,
when the doors of his long-awaited lido are scheduled to swing open,
blindness will be closing in on Steve Wynn."
Fortunately, the prediction in this article (the eyesight prospects,
not the one for AC) was modestly more dire than what proved to be the
case (but apparently not by much in view of Dunne's observations). A
second article describes the disease as follows:
"He has been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that
gradually destroys a person's retinas and optic nerve, slowly reducing
the field of vision until blindness occurs."
- Harry