Optical Nerve Injuries

When Richard first regained conscienceness and began to communicate, one of the first things he said was that he couldn't see anything out of his left eye.  This was on February 17th, 11 days after the accident. Specialists were called in and they ran tests. They determined that Richard's left optical nerve was injured in the accident and that although they could give him medicine to avoid blindness if it is taken soon enough after the trauma, they didn't know there was a problem because he was not conscience.  Therefore, the window of time to do that was over and there was nothing that could be done about him loosing his eyesight in that eye.

Several months later, he was transported by ambulance (the only way he was able to be transported from one place to another) to an eye clinic nearby.  The doctor there did a more thorough exam and found that the left eye was indeed blind.  The optical nerve died and that was the cause of the inability of the eye to see.  The eye itself was fine.  He also found that the right eye's optical nerve was also affected and the top half of the vision in that eye was also gone.

Richard explains it by saying that it is as if you are in a room with a dim light bulb burning.  You can still see what is in the room, but it is darker or dimmer.

We are also told that this outcome could have been caused by swelling, but that is not definative.

To Richard, it seems logical that if someone is swollen as badly as he was, and that person could not communicate, the doctor should have administered the medicine that would help just in case it was a problem.  I understand that without that communication, there may have been side effects that could have made giving that medicine questionable.  I also feel that they didn't do things like this because they didn't think he would live, and keeping him alive at that point was the most important thing. We can't get into the mind of the doctors on duty. I am grateful that they did what they knew to do and that in the end, his life was saved.  That is is easier for me to say because I am not the one that lost sight.

If you were to look at Richard, you would never know that the eye doesn't work.  Both eyes track the same.  Both eyes look the same, but both eyes do not see the same. You can hide on his left side and he will not know you are there.  That is actually beneficial at times!  

Years later while flying with Richard, I put in the reservation that he was blind.  The flight attendant approached him.  He was reading a book at the time.  She said something like, "Oh, we have on your reservation that he is blind."  Everyone in the family that was there said, "Oh yes, he is."  We still laugh about that today. She probably thought we were crazy, and she may be right.  He is a blind man that can read.