Jimmy Donaldson, 24, who goes by the online moniker of MrBeast is an American YouTuber and most subscribed individual on the platform, also one of the website’s highest earners.
The content creator’s most recent stunt involves paying for cataract surgery for 1,000 people who were blind or near-blind but couldn’t afford it.
The video has gone viral, gaining 44 millions views, currently topping no.5 on YouTube’s trending page, all in just one day.
Donaldson collaborated with ophthalmologist and surgeon Jeff Levenson to perform the initial round of treatments in Jacksonville, Florida.
For over 20 years, Levenson has coordinated the ‘Gift of Sight’ program, which provides free cataract surgery to uninsured patients who are legally blind due to cataracts.
‘If MrBeast can light a fire, and if we can get governmental and private support behind it, we can end half of all the blindness in the world.’
MrBeast showed the patients’ reactions as their bandages were removed after surgery.
This is first time that many of them had seen properly in decades.
MrBeast also gave $10,000 to several patients, purchased a Tesla for one, and donated $50,000 to another’s college fund.
In America Phacoemulsification, the surgery to remove cataracts, can cost up to $6,000 for patients without insurance.
The procedure sees cataracts removed with a vacuum and a new lens inserted.
One patient was a man named Charlie, who’s deteriorated vision prevented him from working anymore.
After receiving the surgery, Charlie is able to see again and MrBeast gives him $10,000.
‘I just haven’t been me for the last 62 years,’ one patient tells MrBeast in the video, ‘I can actually see your face.’
Another man said the first thing he wanted to see when his bandages came off was his son, who he said had been his ‘rock’ throughout his vision problems.
‘Seeing him, seeing his face, you know, that’s what I miss the most,’ he said. As soon as he came out of surgery, his son was there and the two embraced in tears.
The surgery used in the video appeared to be Phacoemulsification, which is one of the procedures Sees specializes in.
