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Since 1964, more than 200,000 patients have undergone surgery at Gimbel Eye Centre. The facility offered the first Canadian outpatient small incision cataract surgery, laser vision correction surgery, the first refractive lens exchange and the first implantable corrective lens procedures.

“The implants in the eye and the small incision cataract surgery that didn’t require hospitalization was a dramatic change, and we were blessed to be able to be involved in that transition and participate in innovating improvements and techniques and to prevent complications,” he said.

Glenn Gimbel, president of Gimbel Eye Centre, said there has been an outpouring of support from his father’s colleagues in response to the news of his upcoming procedure.

“It’s been really wonderful to see that support, so we’re excited about the opportunity this is creating for younger doctors to join and to participate in an organization that’s really owned more by the community, in some ways, than by Dr. Gimbel and his wife,” he said.

Howard Gimbel was born in Calgary and grew up on a farm near Beiseker. He studied medicine at Loma Linda University in California and completed an ophthalmology residency at White Memorial Medical Centre in Los Angeles before returning to Calgary in 1964.

He was named a Member of the Order of Canada earlier this year for his pioneering work in cataract and refractive surgery.

Glenn Gimbel said the organization’s next chapter will include his father in an active role, just a different one from what he has been used to providing the organization.

“We see our organization carrying on and expanding, hopefully, to provide the best possible care to patients, particularly surgical care, of the eyes from the cornea to the retina,” Howard Gimbel said.