Miracle Workers

Doctors attempt to restore the eyesight of a 34-year-old Ohio father of three who has been blind since childhood, the result of an allergic reaction to penicillin, and mobility to a 47-year-old woman with a degenerative bone-and-joint condition who uses a wheelchair and walker.

Treated: a 4-year-old California boy with VATER syndrome, a condition resulting in fused ribs, which caused a bump on his chest and a spinal curvature that leaves his head tilted and his back shaped like a question mark. Also: a 19-year-old California woman with Tourette's syndrome, which causes physical and verbal tics that make ordinary interactions difficult. The procedure planned for her is electrical stimulation of her brain, while a titanium rod is implanted in the boy's ribs.

Doctors attempt to restore the use of an arm and repair the shattered heel of a housepainter and father of five. In addition, a dance teacher and former Broadway star is given new hope when doctors try to return the mobility he lost to a debilitating case of osteoarthritis.

Patients treated include a Nevada grandmother with Parkinson's disease and an 11-year-old Alabama boy who has been blind since birth. Charlene Lustig's motor dysfunctions haven't responded to treatment, so Dr. Kim J. Burchiel implants electrodes in her brain in a procedure called deep brain stimulation. Young Josh McInnish has undergone unsuccessful corneal transplants; now Dr. Peter Zloty attaches an artificial cornea to a donated one and implants it into the boy's eye.

A woman from Lake Charles, La., who has overcome breast cancer twice gets treatment for the damage chemotherapy inflicted on her heart. Also: A young boy from Miami undergoes surgery after being born without a left heart ventricle.