-Mohali: A 14-year-old girl with down-syndrome regained vision after a successful cataract surgery at Max hospital Mohali. She had cataracts in both her eyes and she was also suffering from multiple disabilities, including congenital heart disease, aphasia, limb deformities and intellectual disability.
The girl developed cataracts during early childhood, leading to progressive vision loss. By teenage years, she got completely blind, severely impacting her quality of life. Over the past two years, her parents sought help from various eye specialists and tertiary care centers, but were repeatedly turned away due to the high surgical risk involved.
Over time the parents began noticing signs of progressive vision loss with the girl struggling to locate objects and started having frequent falls thus eventually she lost complete vision in both her eyes.
The girl had lost vision in both eyes due to cataract and the only hope of restoring her vision was by performing cataract surgery, said Dr. Harpreet Kapoor, director ophthalmology at Max Hospital, Mohali .
Dr. Harpreet Kapoor further said , “This was a rare and complex case, further complicated by nystagmus- a condition characterized by involuntary eye movements, which made even the preliminary eye examination particularly challenging. Even though the child had multiple systemic issues, timely surgical intervention was essential to preserve her vision and improve her quality of life.”
A specialized technique using a phacoemulsification system was employed for cataract surgery, and a premium intraocular lens (IOL) was implanted in both eyes, he informed.
Both surgeries were successfully completed. She is also able to perform fine tasks such as picking up objects and writing, further demonstrating that her vision has been effectively regained.
Dr. Amit Nagpal, consultant pediatrics at Max Hospital, Mohali stated, “This case was not only challenging but very rare. The efforts of our ophthalmology team were crucial in ensuring that the child received timely surgical intervention.” a
