Safuna Lewis is your normal three-year-old who is excited at the prospect of starting her first day of nursery school come September and like most little girls she likes posing for photographs, but there is just one big difference – she has lost her left eye and is in danger of losing the right one unless she receives urgent medical attention.
“It is hard to sit and watch her and I know she could be totally blind, she done lose one eye and it will be hard if she lose deh other one,” the child’s mother, Lureen Lewis of Sophia, a single mother with six children, told Stabroek News recently.
There is a ray of hope for the child since according to her mother, Dr Narendra Bhalla of the local Cancer Institute has indicated that the soft tissue mass lesion that is over the eye ball and which is threatening to reach the pupil of the eye could be treated. Should the mass reach the pupil then the child would be totally blind.
“But deh doctor say that it would cost $20,000 a day for the therapy and he don’t know how long it would last and we can’t afford that,” the woman told Stabroek News.
According to the mother everything appeared to be normal when her child was born but one month after “I notice like a glaze over deh left eye.” She said she took the child to the Georgetown Public Hospital and was told that something was wrong with the eye. The child was seen by the hospital’s eye specialist Dr George Norton who in the end removed the eyeball when the child was one-year-old.
“We thought that when this do then the problem will gone and she would see through the right eye and all will be good,” the woman said.
However, late last year the woman once again observed what she termed as “a glaze over she eye” and immediately realized that her daughter was in danger of losing her other eye. She said that the child feels no pain and would not indicate if her vision is blurred because of her age.
Afraid that her daughter would lose the eye, the woman said after she took her back to Dr Norton she was advised to see Dr Bhalla at the institute who in turn recommended magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which was done at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital.
According to a report of the MRI, prepared by Dr Rajiv Sharma and seen by this newspaper, there is evidence of enucleation with removal of the left eyeball.
“There is a soft tissue density mass lesion in the right eyeball, posterior chamber in relation to the vitreoretinal complex of size 19 x 14 x 13 mm. The right optic nerve, extra-ocular muscles, intraconal fat are normal. The optic chiasma is normal. The sella, suprasellaer and parasellar regions are normal,” the report said.
It said that no evidence of any parenchymal hemorrhage, contusion or brain infarct was seen and the cerebral cortical sulci appears to be normal.
The woman said when she took the report back to Dr Bhalla she was informed about the therapy, which could begin next month when the doctor, who visits the institute from overseas, is expected there again.
She said she has since informed Dr Norton about the doctor’s advice and he told her to do what is necessary as the only option that is available to him was to remove the eye.
“I just want some help to leh she get the treatment, it would be hard if she lose this eye too, I begging for some help…” the child’s mother said.
Anyone desirous of assisting little Safuna could contact her mom on 691-4507.
