A Nebraska mother saved her daughter from going blind after spotting a barely visible abnormality in the girl’s eye.
Brandee Artale noticed a curious cloudiness in both of her newborn’s eyes while breastfeeding and immediately knew something was wrong.
The family would later learn that this is a symptom of childhood cataracts, when the eye becomes covered by an opaque lens.
If left untreated, the condition causes babies to lose their place.
Brandee Artale (pictured) noticed that her newborn’s eyes were cloudy, and it was discovered that he had infantile or congenital cataracts.
Mrs. Artale first noticed that her daughter’s eyes were cloudier than usual while she was breastfeeding.
About three in every 10,000 American babies are born with childhood cataracts, also called congenital cataracts, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
The condition, which primarily affects older adults, causes the eye’s lens to lose its transparency, allowing less light to pass through, causing cloudy vision. Over time, the opacity worsens until patients reach complete vision loss.
The cause of baby Madison’s cataracts is unknown, although they often develop due to genetic abnormalities.
Mrs. Artale said Good morning america on the moment he detected the condition: “I was really looking at her… and I thought, something looks strange in her eyes.” He seemed a little cloudy in a way.
The Artales took their daughter to see Dr. Paul Rychwalski, an ophthalmologist at Children’s Nebraska Hospital, who performed three surgeries in Madison over nine months, including two when she was a newborn, which saved her vision.
Both surgeries had to be performed before he was six weeks old to remove the cloudiness from his eyes.
Dr. Rychwalski said, “The brain is not fully activated during those first six weeks, so we have some flexibility, but then the clock starts ticking.”
A buildup of pressure in his eyes required a third surgery to correct the common side effect of cataract surgery.
The Artales took their daughter to see Dr. Rychwalski (pictured), who performed three surgeries in Madison over nine months, including two when she was a newborn, which saved her vision.
Madison was finally able to get glasses, an opportunity that has changed the life of the baby as well as that of her mother and father, Andrew (Shown)
He added: “There’s a good chance that if we can carefully monitor her, she can have better than 20/40 vision in each eye.”
“But a lot of obstacles can come up, so this family will be a very close part of our family at Children’s Nebraska for many years to come, just making sure there are no complications later.”
Madison was finally able to get glasses, an opportunity that has changed the baby’s life as well as that of her mother and father, Andrew.
He gets cranky when he needs to take them off and looks for them as soon as he wakes up.
Mrs Artale said: “At first he was fighting it and then he was finally able to see things. She looked at me like, “Mom, I see you,” and I was just crying. ‘
You can absolutely see her taking it all in.
Artale added: “Many parents at first tell me, ‘My child won’t wear glasses,’ and my response is, ‘Well, wait and see.'”
“When the child is presented with what the real, focused vision looks like, he will quickly adopt it.”
Her prognosis was very good, thanks to her mother’s ability to detect the unusual quality of her daughter’s vision.
The Artales now want to raise awareness about their daughter’s condition, hoping that parents can avoid the risk of blindness in their babies.
Dr. Rychwalski echoed his mission and said the most important thing is that parents feel empowered to raise the abnormality with their child’s doctor. And parents can pay attention to how their baby looks in photos.
He said: ‘It’s normal (in photos) to have this red reflection, or “red eye”, and if we have one side red and the other white, that could indicate that something is blocking the light in the eye.
“If you ever see an abnormal red reflex or a white pupil, it’s something you’ll want to talk to your pediatrician or ophthalmologist about right away.”
