Demar needs eye surgery
to prevent blindness

NINE-YEAR-OLD Demar Brown, a student of Ewarton Primary School needs eye surgery to prevent him from going blind.

Already, Demar has had to drop out of school because he cannot see the chalkboard. "When him look good at the black-board he see about four of them," said mother Judith English.

Doctors diagnose Demar, who is from Ewarton in St. Catherine, with keratoconus after he began complaining about difficulties seeing from the left eye.

Keratoconus is a vision disorder that occurs when the normally round cornea (the front part of the eye) becomes thin and irregular (cone) shaped. This abnormal shape prevents light entering the eye from being focused correctly on the retina and causes distortion of vision.

Keratoconus causes slight blurring and distortion of vision and increased sensitivity to glare and light. These symptoms usually appear in the late teens or late twenties.

She said that to do the operation locally it will cost $75,000 and this does not include the cost of the donated cornea which cost US$1,500.

"It was late last year May I find out about the eye. He stopped doing his schoolwork, him always squinting his eye, and him scratch (rub) the eye," she told THE STAR.

English said that he has problems with his right eye as well and suffers from fever.

English said that she took her son to the doctors in Linstead but she was referred to Kingston after it was found out that there was nothing they could do for the lad.

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