David Paton, creator of Flying Eye Hospital, dies at 94
David Paton, an idealist and innovative ophthalmologist who started in Project Orbis, converting a United Airlines jet to a flying hospital that brought surgeons to developing countries to operate on patients and educate local doctors, died on April 3 at his house in Reno, Nev. It was 94.His death was confirmed by his son, Townley.Son of an important eye surgeon in New York whose patients included Iran's Shah and the lender J. Pierpont Morgan's Horse, dr. Paton (pronounced Pay-Ton tonne) was teaching the Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute in the early 70s when discouraged by increasing cases increasing cases preventable in places."Other eye doctors were needed," he wrote in his memories book, "Second Sight: views from A Eye Doctor's Odyssey" (2011), "but equally impo...