Patient stories: treating Ismail, India, for retinopathy of prematurity

Having been born prematurely, Ismail suffered with loss of vision from birth. Thanks to your support, Ismail and his family are very positive about their future.

When Ismail was born at only 29 weeks, despite neo-natal complications, his parents initially weren’t aware that anything was wrong with his sight. It was only after a visit to his grandfather’s house, that it was discovered that baby Ismail wasn’t responding to visual cues.

Ismail's heartbroken parents had lost hope and the outcome looked bleak until he began treatment at the HV Desai Children’s Eye Centre where, thanks to your support, the vision was restored in one of his eyes.

His mother Nasreen told us about Ismail’s challenging start in life.

Nasreen

Ismail's mother

He was very weak to start with, so his mile­stones were also delayed, so he used to lie around, and didn’t do too much activity
Ismail from India had sight loss caused by retinopathy of prematurity

Ismail wants to become a mechanic

Desperate, his family sought treatment at the Orbis supported H V Desai Eye Hospital, which is part of the India Childhood Blindness Initiative and had just started to specialise in ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity) - an eye disease that Ismail had been diagnosed with. The hospital’s child-friendly Children’s Eye Centre (CEC) can now provide comprehensive paediatric eye care services to children in the region.

and likes to ride his bike really fast

Fortunately for Ismail, who was in the late stages of ROP, someone had just donated a retinal camera and he was one of the very first few children to get treated there.

Dr Anushree Kaduskar

Partner Hospital Doctor

On exam­i­na­tion, he was found to have a very late stage of ROP, so we went ahead and did a vit­rec­to­my, or a surgery, for both his eyes. We were able to sal­vage vision in one of his eyes. Now the child is 7 years old, and doing very well. He has got a good ambu­la­to­ry vision. He goes to a school [for chil­dren with blind­ness]. He is enrolled in a lot of extra-cur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties and is able to man­age his activ­i­ties dai­ly liv­ing with his vision. His par­ents are very hap­py with the out­come. Soon he can go to nor­mal school

His delighted mother spoke to us about the progress he has made since having treatment.

Nasreen

Ismail's mother

I’m extreme­ly grate­ful and very hap­py today that he’s able to see bet­ter. At around 4 – 5 years of age, when he start­ed walk­ing, I used to take him around the gar­dens, and felt very hap­py to see that he was inter­act­ing with the gar­den and hap­py and explor­ing things. I’m hap­py he can play games and go up to lev­el 4 [on video games]. He can ride a bicy­cle also. He is able to do all those small things

Ismail and his family

Thanks to your support, Ismail enjoys riding his bike very fast, playing hide-and-seek and dreams of being a car mechanic one day now that he can see.

In the fight against avoidable blindness, every minute counts

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