Hi-tech offers baby eyesight hope

Little Catherine Pilcher was born blind, but can now see colours and movement.

The 8-month-old tot was one of the first in the country to receive life-changing eye surgery thanks to a diagnosis from a hi-tech eye scanner, the first of its kind in Australasia.

Her father Nigel Pilcher said he was ‘‘devastated’’ when he found out his daughter was blind, but was given new hope after Starship Hospital used the hand-held optical coherence tomography scanner to show eye surgery could give his daughter sight.

‘‘The surgeons weren’t sure if something was wrong with her eyes, but the back of the eye looked fine, so they could tell it was worth doing the surgery.’’

Starship ophthalmologist Dr Shuan Dai diagnosed the Marlborough girl with bilateral cataract after she was born in February.

After using the new scanner, Dai decided to remove the cataracts.

‘‘Catherine’s cataract was one of the most difficult I have done in my 20 years of practice. It was very thick and difficult to remove.

‘‘Without the OCT scanner we would not have been able to clearly see that the inner structures of Catherine’s eye were well-formed and therefore removing the catar- act would give the best chance of sight.’’

Pilcher was ‘‘really happy’’ Dai was able to do the surgery, he said.

‘‘It’s incredible that Catherine was able to have this eye surgery at such a young age. Without it, she had no chance of seeing.’’

Pilcher and his wife Samantha ordered special thick-lensed glasses made for infants from the United States to help Catherine’s eyesight develop.

‘‘There’s nothing clearcut. She’s too young to know for sure how much she will be able to see. But we’re still quite hopeful that she will have some sight,’’ Samantha said.

The scanner could also be used to help diagnose optic nerve abnormality, glaucoma and other retinal diseases earlier and more accurately in children and reduce the frequency of clinical visits.

Old scanners were only able to produce a flat image, but the new scanner used light waves to create detailed cross-sectional pictures of the inside of a child’s eye.

The scanner cost $121,000, funded by Mercury customers who donated to Starship each month in their monthly bill.

More than 12,000 children visited the Starship ophthalmology service each year.

Mercury’s chief marketing officer Julia Jack said the company supported Starship Hospital because it was ‘‘something close to the hearts of our customers’’.

‘‘It’s exciting to see what can happen when goodwill, technology and business values intersect.’’ - Fairfax NZ