OPTICIAN SAVED OUR BOO FROM CANCER
Dilated pupil was clue to disease
A RELIEVED mum has thanked an optometrist who saved her daughter’s life after spotting signs that she had a rare brain tumour.
Karen Lee-Johnston took her two-year-old daughter to Vision Express in Silverburn, Glasgow, after noticing she had a dilated pupil in her right eye, was vomiting, very thirsty and had regressed to crawling due to poor balance.
Optometrist Aaron Spears discovered Erika, known as Boo, was showing symptoms of a craniopharyngioma tumour and made an emergency hospital referral.
Boo had further tests at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow that day, including a CT scan which detected the condition, and an MRI scan to confirm the type and severity of the growth.
The scan confirmed the growth was a rare brain tumour most commonly found in children, with just 30 cases per year in the UK.
Karen, 33, said: “We were waiting in a shared ward and a nurse told me she would look after Boo while I spoke to a doctor in a private room – at this point, I felt sick.
“I’m a straight-up type of person, so I said, ‘This isn’t good news, is it?’ One of the neurosurgeons said, ‘No’. The doctor told me she most likely would have died if we had left it another one or two weeks.
“One in 20million get this type of tumour and athough it’s benign, the oncologist said it’s in a malignant place.” The family were told Boo had completely lost vision in her right eye and she had surgery to try to save the sight in her left eye.
The widowed mum of three, whose husband died in 2017, said: “Thankfully, following surgery her sight came back in both eyes – it was a miracle. People don’t believe me when I explain what has happened to our family but it could happen to anyone.
“Her future won’t be easy but she’s alive and has her sight – Aaron saved her life.”
Karen, from Glasgow, is sharing her daughter’s story as part of National Eye Health Week, which runs until tomorrow.