The day before his inauguration as South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela underwent eye surgery performed by ophthalmologist Dr Selig Percy Amoils.

Using a technology first introduced at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, Amoils removed a cataract from Mandela’s left eye.

Roughly 10 years earlier, Amoils had used the same instrument, known as a cryoprobe, to cure British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of retinal detachment after laser surgery had failed.

These high-profile operations followed an already decorated career, with Amoils’s cryoprobe significantly advancing cataract surgery in the late 20th century.

Born in Johannesburg in 1933, Amoils was schooled in the city before briefly studying engineering and then enrolling to study medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand.

After completing his degree at Wits in 1956, he completed specialist training at Baragwanath and then Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

Amoils then continued his training at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in the United States (US) as a research fellow and research scientist, specialising in retinal diseases, glaucoma, and surgery.

After returning to South Africa in the early 1960s and taking up a post at Baragwanath, he worked on advancing cryosurgery, which is the use of extreme cold to destroy abnormal or diseased tissue, to treat cataracts (opaque areas that form on the lens of the eye) and other eye diseases.

This led to him developing the cryoprobe, a pencil-shaped surgical tool with a frozen tip used for cryosurgery, in 1965.

The device works by releasing gas from a small nozzle under high pressure. When inserted into a surgical cut in the eye, it freezes to the cataract, which can then be removed.

While most in the medical field knew little about the young eye surgeon, this suddenly changed when he presented the cryoprobe to scientists at Oxford University the year it was invented, rocketing him to fame in the field.

In 1975, Amoils received the Queen’s Award for Technological Innovation, as well as the Medal of Honour from the US Academy of Applied Science.

The eye surgeon clearly had a knack for inventing new surgical tools, and also became known for developing several others, such as the rotary epithelial scrubber, which helps prepare the cornea for eye surgery.

He also developed diamond vitrectomy cutters that allow for fine control of blade depth during eye surgery.

In 2006, Amoils was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe, South Africa’s highest honour, awarded to civilians whose achievements have had an international impact and served the interests of fellow citizens.

Amoils is still alive today but stays out of the limelight.