CNN —
YouTube superstar MrBeast makes the world clearer – for at least 1,000 people.
The content creator’s latest stunt is paying for cataract removal for 1,000 people who were blind or nearly blind but couldn’t afford the surgery.
“We’re healing the blindness of a thousand people,” says MrBeast – real name Jimmy Donaldson – in Saturday’s video, which racked up over 32 million views as of Sunday afternoon.
The video features touching before and after images of patients seeing clearly after the surgery is complete. The YouTuber also presented monetary donations and other gifts to some attendees.
Jeff Levenson, an ophthalmologist and surgeon, worked with Donaldson to perform the first round of surgeries in Jacksonville, Florida. For over 20 years, Levenson has coordinated the Gift of Sight program, which offers free cataract surgery to uninsured patients who are legally blind due to cataracts.
“Half of all blindness in the world is people who need 10-minute surgery,” Levenson says in the video, referring to the cataract removal surgery.
Levenson explained to CNN that he was inspired to help people access cataract surgery after undergoing his own cataract correction.
“In the days and weeks following my own cataract surgery, I was stunned by how bright, beautiful, and vibrant the world was,” he said. “But I was shocked to think that there are hundreds of millions, probably 200 million people around the world who are blind or almost blind because of cataracts and can’t have access to the surgery.”
Levenson received a call from a member of Donaldson’s team in September. “I had never heard of MrBeast,” he said. “So I almost hung up. But luckily I didn’t hang up.”
They began calling homeless shelters and free clinics to create a list of patients in the Jacksonville area who needed cataract surgery but couldn’t afford it. Eventually, they had a group of 40 patients — and Levenson performed all of their surgeries in a single day, starting at 7 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m
Levenson said the patients were “incredulous that someone would actually come to them to save them from blindness and then have the kindness and generosity of spirit to offer the surgery.”
The ophthalmologist also linked Donaldson’s team to SEE International, for which he serves as chief medical officer. The non-profit organization offers free eye care to patients in need around the world. The organization helped Donaldson reach even more patients, for a total of 1,000 surgeries performed in about three weeks. The video shows patients undergoing surgery in Jamaica, Honduras, Namibia, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam and Kenya.
Levenson said he hopes the video and Donaldson’s generosity will inspire “a concerted effort to end needless blindness.”
“If MrBeast can start a fire and we can get government and private support for it, we can end half of all blindness in the world,” he said. “Without so much cost and with incredible gains in human productivity and human potential.”