This woman’s loving son guided her into my consultation room, where she awkwardly sat down and began describing to me her persistent cough. During the conversation, she never once looked at me. In fact, her two eyes seemed to wander – and now always in union. After a few moments, I waved my hand in from of her face with no reaction, and interrupted her discourse by commenting, “Excuse me, you seem to be blind.” Indeed, on closer examination, you can see that her pupils are white in color – evidence of mature cataracts – and that her gaze is disconjugate – sometimes found in profound blindness.
Why didn’t this woman or her son mention to me her visual disability, and instead focused only on her cough? In a word: lack of knowledge. They knew I could treat her cough, but they were unaware of available treatment for cataracts. To me this is doubly sad, that she is blind and that in the Internet & cellphone age the two of them were not even aware that a cure exists. Let’s work together that no one is unnecessarily blind, and that those who are are also aware of resources to aid their plight.