Stroke cures bad vision?
Malcolm Darby, 70, wore eyeglasses since he was a young child to compensate, he says, for being "blind as a bat." Last year, the Leicestershire, UK man suffered a stroke and now has perfect vision. Physicians operated to remove the blood clot apparently blocking 80 percent of his carotid artery. When Darby woke up, he noticed that his eyesight was just fine without his spectacles. From The Telegraph:
When Dr Darby woke from the anaesthetic he said he thought his vision had become even worse."Stroke gives 'blind as bat' 70-year-old perfect vision"
He said: "I was still a bit fuzzy from the surgery but reached for my glasses and put them on and I couldn't see a thing.
"I thought, 'oh no' I'm going to have to spend more money on new glasses.
"Then when I took them off I noticed a nurse carrying a newspaper upside down and I could read what it said. It didn't register at first and then suddenly I realised I could see.
It is unclear why the stroke or the operation appears to have caused such a dramatic improvement in Mr Darby's sight but doctors believe there may have been pressure on the optic nerve at the back of the eye which was relieved as the clot was cleared.
Dr Martin Fotherby, consultant stroke physician at Leicester Stroke Centre, said: "It's pretty unusual. It's a mystery."
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That's quite a stroke of luck!
I recommend strokes for all my patients, says optometrist.
Usually severe stroking causes blindness.
After open heart surgery(by pass) I didnt need to where my glass's for a month. Then slowly the poor vision returned
You have two slick balls set 1.125 centimeters from the big brain... high speed connections and high priority links... Herm.
My ex reports that one of his glasses-wearing coworkers got doused with Skydrol (aviation hydraulic fluid, VERY hydrophilic and toxic) and after the bandages came off he had perfect vision. Nobody could explain why.
There's so much we don't know about everything, it's really quite startling sometimes.
@phikus painful, man, painful.
@weaponx.... I just wish I'd said it first.
Crap, when I got doused with Skydrol all I got was this lousy ability to predict future developments in landing gear carriage design.
after 60 years the socialist NHS still has competent surgeons? shocking.
I once heard that strokes would make you go blind....oh I see. Different strokes, for different folks.
I would gues the Skydrol caused swelling or damage to the cornea that altered the shape of the eye just enough to correct thier vision.
He would've been better safer getting corrective surgery.
The Communist NHS were, of course, attempting to execute Mr Darby at the time.
It's just lucky for him that the doctor's surgical axe was blunt due to over-use.
Was his improvement in vision confirmed by an eye doctor?
He could be mistaken. The stroke or operation could have damaged his ability to judge his own vision...
meaning what? that he had a blood clot in his carotid since boyhood?
That's not possible. In socialized medicine, they just kill you when you get sick.
My optician recommends stigmata for astigmatism.
@13
He could have had some sort of abberant structure or configuration that was somehow compressing the optic nerve that was accidentally cut/moved/altered with the surgery.
Carotid artery blockage could effect vision, but it'd be kind of bizarre for it to be so stable in not shifting for decades and in terms of causing only vision symptoms for decades.
I plan on donating my cadaver for research, I hope he does too.
The first radial keriatomy (the surgery to improve vision, now supplanted by lasiks) was done to get shards of glass out of a kids eye, only afterwards did he note his vision was much better.
I had a head injury when I was 18--I fell off the 2nd storey roof of a store, and landed on my face. When I woke up (three days later), I watched TV in my hospital room--and it took me a few days to realize I could see the TV without my glasses (which obviously had been destroyed).
My vision isn't 20/20, but it's much better. Weird.