The first person ever to receive this bill was Patient Alpha. His given name is Jens — pronounced "Yens." Twenty-two years ago, at age 17, while nailing down railroad ties, an errant splinter took his left eye. Then, three years later, this time fixing a snowmobile, a shiv of clutch metal broke free and took out his right.

He lives in rural Canada, where the winters are brutal. He makes his living by selling firewood. Working alone, he splits logs with the largest chain saw currently available on the market. During the high season, he'll manhandle 12,000 pounds of wood in a day. He helped his wife deliver six of his eight children at home, without a physician or midwife. Jens dismisses the whole hospital birthing process as rapacious big business.

Starting from scratch and without the aid of sight, Jens designed and built a solar- and wind-powered house and pulled his family off the grid. In his spare hours, he programs computers, tunes pianos, and gives the occasional concert. For a blind man to give a classical recital requires memorizing whole scores — a process that can take nearly five years. To cover his surgery, Jens gave quite a few recitals.