After being diagnosed with a tumor in her brainstem, the surgery to remove it left Michal Marks with paralysis on one side of her face. The condition created a major challenge—she could no longer close her eye or blink.

Two of her friends, an engineer and a physicist, decided to find a creative solution to ease her suffering. This led to the creation of a blinking pacemaker called “Blinker,” a device that stimulates the eyelid using electrical pulses to restore blinking function.

Following the success of the solution, the three founded a startup to develop and manufacture the device. Today, they hope their innovation will help millions of people worldwide who suffer from the same condition.

A breakthrough device is currently being tested in South Florida with the goal of helping patients perform an action most of us take for granted: blinking.

On average, we blink about 15 times per minute—approximately 15,000 times each day. However, people suffering from facial paralysis are unable to blink at all, which can lead to severe dry eye and blurred vision.

Soon, the Rand Eye Institute will be among the first sites in the United States to conduct a clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of an artificial blinking pacemaker.

Michal suffered from facial nerve paralysis—a condition that in most cases resolves within a few weeks. However, in her case the paralysis became permanent and prevented her from blinking.

Time and again, doctors told her that there was simply no solution to this problem. Just as she was about to give up, her engineer friends stepped in to try to solve it.

Against all odds, they succeeded in developing an “eyelid pacemaker”—similar in concept to a cardiac pacemaker—that allows Michal to live her life again.

Hundreds of thousands of people suffer from facial paralysis each year,
and until now there was no solution for the inability to blink.