Charles Schepens

[2][3] Schepens then trained in ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, England prior to World War II.

[3] After the fall of Belgium, Schepens escaped to France where he became active in the French Resistance smuggling documents and people over the Pyrenees to Spain during 1942 and 1943.

[3] He worked under the alias of Jacques Perot, a lumber mill operator in the French Basque village of Mendive.

[2] It has been reported that Schepens assembled the prototype for his BIO from metal scraps collected from the streets of London during the German blitz.

[5] His life's story has been told in Meg Ostrum's 2004 book, "The Surgeon and the Shepherd: Two Resistance Heroes in Vichy France".

[5] In 2013, a biographical profile of Dr. Schepens was included in a bestselling book called Saving Sight: An eye surgeon's look at life behind the mask and the heroes who changed the way we see, by Andrew Lam (author), M.D.