Kirkland optometrist Dr. Ross Cusic didn’t just help a blind man see – he also helped him to be able to ride a motorcycle.

Cusic, who also practices in Bellingham, Olympia, and Vancouver, Wash., first met Oregon resident Wes Holthusen, in 2011. Holthusen had been born completely blind, but was able to gain limited vision after several experimental surgeries. Yet, his vision was still too poor to be allowed to legally drive. But he did so anyway, albeit in retrospect he advises blind people not to copy him.

“I didn’t want to let my children down as all of the other parents got involved with school events, dances, driving friends to the movies, etc. – so I got behind the wheel without a license,” he said.

This came to an end when he was pulled over during a traffic stop. Ironically, he had just booked an appointment with Cusic to see if there was any way to improve his eyesight, so rather than end up in jail, as he said he initially feared, he ended up in the optometrist’s office.

Cusic said that what struck him the most about Holthusen was his relatively young age compared to most patients with the same vision problems, and that he was very open about discussing his situation. Fortunately for Holthusen, Cusic’s solution was not another surgery, but a pair of glasses with bioptic telescopes.

The effects, Cusic said, were immediate, as Holthusen become the first blind person in Washington and Oregon to be accredited with a Bioptic Motorcycle Endorsement.

After a two-week driving course, Holthusen was able to obtain a driver’s license. He later became the first person in Oregon and Washington to obtain a Bioptic Motorcycle Endorsement. Oregon passed a law in 2005 that allows the use of bioptic glasses to obtain a driver’s license or motorcycle endorsement, while Washington passed a similar law in 2009.

“I can now drive day and night legally,” Holthusen said. “A huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders because of Dr. Cusic.

“These are dreams that I was told would never happen.”

Cusic sees bioptic glasses as offering those with degenerating vision or, like Holthusen, born blind or with poor vision, an opportunity to do things others take for granted.

“They can be helped in other ways, just to be able to see their grandkid’s face or be able to keep reading,” he said.

Despite the success he’s had with patients like Holthusen, Cusic said that bioptic glasses aren’t always offered as a possibility for those who seek out optometrists’ help for their eyesight.

“There’s a lot of skepticism, which is the hardest part,” he said. “An healthy skepticism is good, but we get too much. We don’t have a lot of primary care eye doctors talking about it or doing anything with it… Really nobody in the Washington area does this.”

Cusic’s Kirkland office is located at 12011 124th Ave NE.