Michelle – Five Years Later
“They saved my daughter’s life!”
“When I remember what we lived through five years ago… it was terrifying,” Michelle’s mother said. Michelle was born three months early. Along with other complications that come with being a premature infant, Michelle was diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP. ROP is an eye condition that affects children who are born premature and, if left untreated, it can lead to blindness. Without ROP surgery, Michelle would become blind in both eyes.
“If not addressed and diagnosed within a 72-hour window, the child could go completely blind. Irreversibly. Both eyes. Forever…” stressed Dr. Thomas Lee, Director of the Retina Program in the Vision Center at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and a volunteer physician and board member with AECP.
Before AECP’s ROP program was developed in 2010, and its Center of Excellence for the Prevention of Childhood Blindness established in 2012, Armenia was experiencing an epidemic of childhood blindness in the country.
“We were completely unprepared,” said Dr. Tadevos Hovhannisyan, an ophthalmologist in Armenia. “It was a very painful process telling parents ‘Your child will never see again.’”
The possibility of baby Michelle becoming blind was beyond painful to her parents. “The pain was agonizing,” Michelle’s father remembers. “Our world was full of darkness,” Michelle’s mother adds.
Luckily, with the help of our volunteer physicians and trained medical staff in Armenia, Michelle was able to receive the ROP surgery she so desperately needed to save her sight.
Five years have passed since Michelle’s surgery. And we’re happy to report that this beautiful young girl is now blessed with 100 percent vision.
“We are all in awe,” Michelle’s mother says. “She is able to move freely.” Michelle’s father adds: “She’s able to see, play and attend school. The most important thing is that she is not reliant on anyone.”
Not a single child has gone blind from ROP since the beginning of AECP’s ROP program in Armenia. Through this life-changing initiative, more than 40,000 babies have been screened to date and over 500 babies have been treated with sight-saving surgery. These are babies who would have gone blind without intervention. Now, like Michelle, they have a life full of promise and potential.
“We are evermore grateful to the donors and the doctors,” Michelle’s mother says. “They saved my daughter’s life,” Michelle’s father adds.
As for Michelle, she spends her days doing what children her age are meant to do: sing, dance, draw, learn – and smile as wide as the eye can see.
