The bright side of darkness: Kids who can’t see are a special gift

“The beauty of life does not depend on how happy you are, but on how happy others can be because of you.”

The young mother came dragging her four year old son into my consulting room, nervous, nonetheless full of hope. She had been told by her friend that the white spot in his eye was just a cataract and after surgery all would be well. I sat her on the examination chair with the blind toddler on her laps and tried to examine him. The only thing I could see was the glow in the kid’s eye like a cat’s. That was bad news! I took a deep sigh. “What’s it?” asked the anxious mother. “There’s a problem but I can’t say anything until I have completed my examination,” I replied cautiously. Further examination confirmed my fears. He had the dreadful childhood cancer called retinoblastoma in both eyes. 

Explaining the implications to his parents was not easy. After disappearing for about six months during which period they hopped from one hospital to another, eventually convinced of the need for a solution, returned to me. The cancer had gone beyond the confines of the eyeballs into the surrounding tissues. Both eyes had to be removed followed by radiotherapy.  

I didn’t see the little boy until four years after treatment. His mother had brought him to collect a medical report he needed to enter a school for the blind. Yele, now about 9, was charming, intelligent and witty. With him there were no dull moments.  “Doctor, will you pay me a visit in my new school?” he asked expectantly. “Yes,” I replied. He lunged forward and gave me a big hug. “I will take you round my school and show you my new friends,” he added.    

About one year later I was at Yele’s school to keep my promise. True to his words, he took me round effortless, using his mobility tool - the white cane. He could recognise all his friends by their voice and recall what brought them to the blind school. 

Our first contact was a little girl. “This is Bidemi. She’s 10 and has been here about three years now.” He told me how Bidemi became blind. She didn’t receive any vaccinations as a baby; her poor illiterate parents’ choice of food which precluded dark green leafy vegetables and proteins did not prepare her well to withstand the deluge of infections. Thus measles found her an easy prey. Already at the verge of malnutrition and Vitamin A deficiency, the attack was quite severe but was lucky to survive with blindness owing to the scarring of her cornea.  “Doctor, Yele says it’s possible for me to regain my sight. Is that true?” asked Bidemi. I took a quick look at her eyes. It seemed one eye could be salvaged by cornea grafting. “Yes,” I answered and added, “but I need to examine you more thoroughly.” She started dancing.

“Abbey! Adebola, Kemi where are you!” bellowed Yele. “Say hello to Dr. Ben and introduce yourselves to him,” he commanded. 8year old Adebola  and 9year old Kemi said they both were born with congenital glaucoma. Laughing, Kemi said, “The teachers tell me that my eyes are the largest and prettiest in the school. Isn’t it a shame that I can’t appreciate it myself?  Can you make me see?” she asked smiling. “Someday, I believe with all the new technologies coming up, you will see,” I replied, determined to keep hope alive. Abiodun said he lost his eyes to domestic violence. He was flogged by his father with a cane and lost both eyes. Asked, what he did wrong, “I stole some money from the pocket of his pants. I know better now.”

Dauda and Yisa were about the oldest in the school. Dauda had a febrile illness with convulsions when he was five. His mother had put red pepper and some herbs in his eyes. When he came out of coma, he was found to have developed corneal ulcers. These healed leaving severe corneal scarring. I had a look at Dauda’s eyes. I was optimistic he had a fairly good chance of regaining some useful vision after cornea transplant. Yisa’s account of his blindness was even more pathetic.  He had Apollo which was treated with his dad’s urine. His eyes became worse. There was copious purulent discharge and subsequent perforation leading to blindness. His father’s urine must have contained the organism causing gonorrhea which infected his eyes.    

These kids can’t see but have accepted their fate. They are happy and full of hope for the future. Bidemi and Yele want to be Computer Scientists. Abiodun wants to be a Physiotherapist like his hero, late Bitrus Gani. Kemi wants to be a Professor of English and Dauda and Yisa want to be lawyers. With such self-conviction and determination, this is the bright side of darkness. They are indeed a special gift.        

Do you care?

Dr. Krameh is a young medical doctor who recently became blind. Yes totally blind! He can’t see his patients but his patients can see him. When the hunter becomes the hunted, the hunting expedition is over. Somewhere in a different city, is another young man whose plight is even worse than Krameh’s – he’s deaf and blind.    

These two men are only the latest examples of daily additions to the army of the blind and partially sighted. There are 285million of them all over the world and about 4million here among us in Nigeria – enough to populate a state such as Sokoto, Niger, Delta, Osun or Anambra. The numbers could have been nearly double had it not been for the shortened life span of blind people in the ‘hostile’ environment of Nigeria. A blind man is unlikely to live more than half of his expected number of years and a blind pre-schooler is likely to die before his 10^th birthday. 

Do you really care about the two men above and their over 4million colleagues in similar situation? Interestingly, they care about you and don’t want to be a burden on you! Most of them want empowerment, not pity; opportunities to live and make meaningful contributions to our society, not handouts. This is what Dr. Krameh said when I interviewed him several months ago, “Apart from my visual impediment, I am physically fit.  I can see myself becoming a household name as Radio-doctor, counselling troubled minds, teaching lay people, nurses, medical students and promoting and directing public health activities. I can conquer the world like my heroine, Helen Keller.”

He went on to tell me about Helen Keller. She was for a time, the most famous handicapped person in the world. A severe febrile illness when she was 19 months old left her blind, deaf and barely able to communicate. At age 6, she met Anne Sullivan who taught her the alphabets opening up the world to her. Keller later attended Radcliffe College, where she graduated with honours in 1904. “Her autobiography, The Story of My Life, is a source of inspiration for me,” said Dr. Krameh. Helen Keller later became an activist, a lecturer and an advocate for support, for not just the blind and deaf, but for women's rights. During her lifetime she was regarded as one of America's most inspirational figures. Keller's image appears on the quarter-dollar coin released in 2003 – the first U.S. coin to feature braille.

Dr. Krameh quoted profusely from Helen Keller. “Her words are captivating and motivating,” he said. He recited some of these to me word for word. I was impressed. The words keep ringing in my ears. I share them with you.   

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”
“I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.” 

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
“Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.”
“It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of [boredom].”

“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”
“No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.”
“Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.”

At the mention of the word ‘apathy,’ I asked Krameh to stop. The word triggered something in my memory.  ‘Apathy’ is a lack of feeling or emotion or interest. It is a state of indifference or ‘siddon look.’ It is what led to the holocaust in which about 6million Jews and 5million non-Jews were murdered in Hitler’s Nazi Germany. It is the reason why you are not worried when the bomb is blasting hundreds of miles away but you are suddenly jolted when a blast occurs a few miles away from you. Apathy is why Helen Keller said, “It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.”  Our own Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka said, “The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.” Apathy is a lack of concern or lack of care!

There is sadly apathy towards the fate of the blind. If you care, working together we can light up our world; reduce blindness in Nigeria; eliminate cataract blindness; support the training of more eye care workers and rehabilitate the blind and visually impaired.

And surely, if you care, you can do something today for Dr. Krameh. His hunting expedition may be over but his true life’s mission is yet to begin. Do you care? Do you really care?