BENGALURU: Life is very different lately for seven-year-old Reema Ameen Hassan, who opened her eyes recently and saw a different world than she was used to earlier. Born blind, the child was able to see colours and the faces of her parents for the first time in her life.
Left out of school due to her visual impairment, Reema will also begin attending school this year. Hassan was diagnosed with Congenital Glaucoma from birth and she couldn’t see with both her eyes. Her parents took her to multiple doctors in her hometown but were sent back, after which she visited Bengaluru recently and went to a private hospital where she was able to regain vision in her right eye.
“Glaucoma is where the normal fluid pressure inside the eyes slowly builds up and doesn’t drain properly. Instead, the fluid collects and causes damage to the optic nerve. The optic nerve is a bundle of nerve fibers that connects the retina with the brain. This damage leads to loss of eyesight, this was in the case of Hassan,” said Dr Ramamurthy, Chairman of The Eye Foundation, a super speciality hospital in Bellandur.
When she visited a hospital in the city, a detailed evaluation was conducted where they found out that there was a chronic retinal detachment in her left eye while the retina was normal in her right eye which gave them hope that they can try doing a Corneal Transplant where they were 50 per cent chances of recovery.
“It was impossible to even touch the left eye.
After a one-and-half hour surgery, we were successfully able to do a corneal transplant on her right eye. From zero per cent now Hassan can see 70 per cent from her one eye and is also wearing glasses for the additional 30 per cent vision,” said Dr Sean Socrates Da Silva, Medical Superintendent, Cornea Cataract and Refractive Surgery at Eye foundation.
The doctors also revealed that this was a first of its kind successful procedure and seeing from just one eye is better than not seeing anything. “Now Hassan will start going to school. Her parents keep sending us videos of her running around. Whereas before she used to only sit in one place. It is overwhelming, said Dr Silva”