just hours after the surgery dr. perez removed her bandages and for the first time in nearly a decade she could see her best friend rick brister. >> he was the prettiest thing i believe i've ever seen. >> reporter: the procedure won't work for most blind people and thornton can't see perfectly. >> i can't tell exactly what color you have on, blue or black. >> i'm wearing black. >> that's good. >> blues are bluer, the clouds are bigger and just beautiful. the clouds here look like mountains. >> her vision will get better and in the meantime she's thrilled by what she can see now. as you can hear. >>> a love story with a strange twist. what caused a car crash moments after a man popped the question to his girlfriend? >>> and a pregnant woman accused of stealing from several stores by using sticky notes. how she pulled it off, until she was busted. >>> abc2 news at 5:30 is next. i'm terry owens. a major break in the murder of that yale student who police have now charged with the crime? >>> why one group is firmly behind heal

just hours after the surgery, dr. perezrnton's bandages, and for the first time in nearly a decade, she could see her best friend, rick brister. >> he's the prettiest thing i think i've ever seen. >> reporter: this procedure won't work for most blind people, and thornton can't see perfectly. >> i can't tell exactly what color you have on, either blue or black. >> reporter: i have black on. i'm wearing black. >> c-a-v. >> that's really good. >> reporter: her vision will get better, and meanwhile she's thrilled by what she can see right now. >> the blues are bluer. the clouds are bigger and just beautiful. the clouds here look like mountains. >> reporter: elizabeth cohen, cnn, miami. >> that'n extraordinary story. >>> all right, switching gears. quite a bit here. catching a foul ball at a major league baseball game. it's something every fan dreams about, right? well, a fan at a game last night had a very different idea of fun. making for a memorable and most unusual moment. here now is cnn's jeanne moos. >> reporter: it was a

. >> reporter: first, dr. pereza, because it was blocking her vision. then, get this, he took her canine tooth and part of her jawbone and whittled it down. he then used a piece of her tooth and bone to hold in place a new lens that acts as her cornea. just hours after the surgery, dr. perez removed thornton's bandages and for the first time in nearly a decade, she could see her best friend, rick chris ter. this procedure won't help for most blind people and thornton can't see perfectly. >> i can't tell what color you have on either blue or black. >> reporter: i have black on. >> that is amazing. rick, just look at the clouds. >> soon kay will be going home to mississippi and she'll see p seven grandchildren. >> sorry for that technical problem. but thank god she's going to be seeing. what an amazing story. to our viewers, you're in t"the situation room". >>> happening now, a health care plan for all, can it win senate support in both parties? you need to know what's in this new plan. stand by. >>> will universal he

just hours after the surgery, dr. pereze was the prettiest thing i've ever seen. >> reporter: this procedure won't work for most blind people and thornton can't see perfectly. >> i can't tell exactly what color you have on. either blue or black. >> i have on black. >> c, a, v. >> that's good. >> reporter: her vision will get better. and meanwhile, she's thrilled by what she can see right now. >> the blues are bluer, the clouds are bigger and just beautiful. the clouds here look like mountains. >> reporter: elizabeth cohen, cnn, miami. >> that's quite a story, thanks to elizabeth cohen. she tells us thornton will go home to mississippi in a couple of days and see her grandkids for the first time. >>> president obama turned the lawn into a sports complex as they hosted olympians as part of the push to get the olympian games. it's between chicago, madrid, ♪ tokyo and rio de janeiro. >>> investigators are looking into whether a white man charged with attack ag white woman could be charged with a hate crime. we'll hear from her

dr. victor perez, it was a far-fetched idea, but after meeting sharon, who was blinded by stevens johnsonsyndrome, he knew he had to think out of the box to help her. so he gathered a team and got to work on a procedure they had never done before. first step, they extracted her tooth and bone, shaved it. next, the tooth was implanted under her skin. two months later, it was removed and implanted in her eye. >> had he put that antibiotic in my eye and i could see that yellow, [ laughter ] antibody, i said, it's yellow. [ laughter ] and i knew then i could see. >> thornton's vision is expected to improve past the 2070 mark, where it currently stands. >>> we have breaking news from eastern baltimore county. mike perry is live in sky eye chopper 13. he'll tell us what is going on. >>> denise, we are over a spectacular water main break this. apparently has broken, somewhere around burning highway, at dundalk avenue. this is in the logan village shopping center area of the lower end of dundalk, baltimore county. now, this water main is a very large volume and has completely flooded dundalk aven

dr. perez was the pioneer of this procedure. >> of all tooth you chose -- you chose -- >> the eye tooth. >> i hear they're calling you -- >> the tooth fairy. >> i hrd that yesterday. >> why does it work? >> the mouth has similar characteristics to the eye. it's wet and if you put the tooth and bone of the tooth everything integrates and becomes a living unit in an area that used to be dead and scarred. kay said she can't wait to see her nine grandchildren at the swimming pool screaming, look at me, mimi. look at me. >> they know i can't see, i say okay, baby, mimi's watching. you know, what am i going to say? >> and now? >> i'm going to say, i can see you. >> and indeed she will. her vision is 20/60. here's some encouraging news. the doctors at bask and palmer are now working with the d2'u@)5zez defense to see if the same technique can be applied to soldiers and marines who have been blinded in iraq and afghanistan. meredith and matt. >> medical research is amazing. who would have thought put a

dr. jasmine perez.m thinking about andoni shultz from los altos, california, who fought brain cancer since he was 3. he's had to endure all sorts of treatments and surgery, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer, hundreds of extra hours to do his schoolwork. but he never fell behind. he's headed to college this fall. and then there's shantel steve, from my hometown of chicago, illinois. even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods in the city, she managed to get a job at a local health care center, start a program to keep young people out of gangs, and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college. and jasmine and andoni and shantel aren't any different from any of you. they've faced challenges in their life just like you. in some cases, they've got it a lot worse off than many of you, but they refuse to give up. they chose to take responsibility for their lives, for their education, and set goals for themselves. and i e