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Murali, a 10 year old healthy boy who developed cataract in his right eye along with subsequent squint secondary to radiation therapy.
His father said that Murali was also a normal happy child and was the 2nd child born normally. When he was six years old he developed Burkitt’s lymphoma (a malignant neoplasm) and underwent surgery and later radiation therapy.
Though he did not have cancer the treatment resulted in harmful side effects. He had developed radiation cataract as a result of the therapy. His vision was 3/60 which means he was able to see upto 3 meters with his right eye. The low vision in the right eye also caused a disfiguring squint and was advised surgery. In a single stage both the cataract and squint surgery were done at Aravind
The boy returned for a follow-up after a month and had a visual acuity of 6/9 unaided and did not have squint. This case report shows yet another victory of medical science over the life threatening disorders and sight threatening conditions.
Right To Sight, Right To Education
A 18yr old girl patient (name not given to conceal the identity) who was doing her +2 was seen in the vision rehabilitation centre with the clinical diagnosis of Bilateral Optic Neuritis resolved treated with systemic steroids and now presenting with temporal pallor in both eyes. Her visual acuity with astigmatic correction in the right eye was 6/24 and in the left eye was 3/60. She had taken vocational course in the school with Office Secretary as her main subject and typewriting as one of her papers. As the public exam was nearing she was preparing hard in spite of her visual disability which is usually seen in low vision candidates as they have a fire to excel in life and come successfully. But to her misfortune the school authorities just one month before the public examination removed her name from the school register and called her father and handed over the TC of the child, citing reason that she will not be able to pass the public exam due to her visual impairment and this will reflect on the overall pass percentage of the school which has a good reputation in the community.
When she was seen by Dr. Ilango in the Low Vision Clinic, he decided to fight this case which he felt is against the constitutional law of equal opportunities passed in 1997 for the disabled. First she was given counselling by the rehabilitationist that she can still appear for the exams with the help of low vision aids. Her only problem was that she could not see the type print and she has to go very close to the print which reduces her speed. So a page magnifier made of fresnel prism was hanged before the type print and she could see the print enlarged. She was also given a 6dioptre hand magnifier to read the question paper without any problem. Dr. Ilango also wrote a letter to the school authorities asking them to reconsider their decision as she is visually fit to take the exams with the help of aids. As this did not work, a letter to the Chief Education Officer of the district and the secretary to the special education schools were also sent. Mr. Shanmugam, Secretary, UPHAAR Organization for helping Low Vision and blind children in integrated and special schools in Tamil Nadu, was also directly briefed who decided to fight for this girl and undo the injustice that has happened to a vision impaired girl. The girl left the clinic with all confidence and decided to fight and work still hard for the exams as she believed that she will be allowed to write the exams with the doctor’s certificate.
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