Our eyes can tell so much about the way we are feeling, emotionally
and physically. Our red, itchy eyes are what give us away when we have
allergies, or if we’ve been crying because we received bad news. The sparkle in our eye gives us away when we’re happy or when we find something funny.
And now a white spot on our eye can also tell us when we have a serious eye
disease.
When Noah Shaw was just 3 months old, his mother Elizabeth
noticed that there was a white reflection in Noah’s eye when she took a picture
with her digital camera. She knew this wasn’t the typical “red eye” that many
of us suffer from in our pictures. Elizabeth had learned from parenting
magazines that this could be a sign of retinoblastoma, a
rare type of cancer that usually develops in early childhood.
Elizabeth took Noah to the pediatrician who then referred
her to an ophthalmologist, who confirmed the worst—Noah had tumors in both eyes. After months of
chemotherapy, radiation, and finally a surgery to remove Noah’s right eye, Noah’s
father, Bryan wondered if they could have caught the tumors in Noah’s eyes
earlier. After looking at pictures, he realized that the white spot in Noah’s
eyes started appearing at only 12 days old, but only when the photo was taken
at a certain angle, and as the tumors grew, the white reflection occurred more
frequently.
Retinoblastoma is a very rare disease, affecting only 12 out
of every million children between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, but early
detection is key in saving a child’s vision and even their life. Today Noah is
in good health and in good spirits. He likes to draw and sing and he has
received a prosthesis for his right eye, which allows him to look like any kid
his age.
References:
NPR Blog
References:
NPR Blog
