'A Christmas miracle': the Ukrainian who got his sight back after 36 years

It was a week before Christmas last year when Serhiy Sydorenko underwent corneal surgery on his right eye, a complicated operation that, if successful, would put an end to more than three decades of blindness for the 56-year-old Ukrainian. When the nurses first removed the bandages some hours after the operation, all he could see was light. Painfully bright light, as though someone was directing a beam right at his face. The nurses applied eyedrops and re-tied the bandages. A few hours later they removed them again and Serhiy could make out the blurry outline of a nurse's face looking…