Eye care in the community: Part 6 – Total sight loss

In life, most of us should count our blessings that we are able to see. Sadly, a rare tragedy can occur leaving one in a blind world. This article will focus on two patients, one young and one old, who lost their sight in a split second.

Case 1

A 34-year-old male, GH, was a fortnight from getting married back in August 2017 when he was admitted to hospital for a third routine heart operation, this time a valve replacement. Unfortunately, during the procedure he suffered bilateral posterior cerebral artery territory branch occlusion, thought to be due to possible rogue emboli, which blocked both the right and left side (figure1). The consequence was bilateral occipital lobe cytotoxic oedema due to vascular infarcts and stroke which meant weeks of physiotherapy, speech and memory training and rehabilitation.