Oct 12, 2006 9:20 pm US/Eastern
Surgery Gives Young Girl Her Sight Back
by Lisa Hughes
BOSTON (CBS4) ―
The doctors and nurses at
Children's Hospital Boston pull off miracles everyday.
Allie was just a baby and she was blind. But thanks to Children's Hospital Boston she can see again.
Allie Defrancisco is nearly four now, but when she was just fifteen months old she lost her sight because of
cataracts. Her pediatrician sent her to Children's Hospital.
"We say, that's impossible," Allie's mother Kristin Defrancisco said, remembering when doctors told her about the cataracts. "We didn't even know that was something children could experience."
But it happens, due to heredity, injuries or infection. And in some cases like Allie's, the cause is a mystery.
With cataracts, the lens of the eye clouds over, as can be seen in photographs of baby Allie.
"When both eyes were gone, she couldn't see anything," she said. "She was totally blind."
Dr. Deborah Vanderveen performed the delicate surgery, removing Allie's damaged lenses and replacing them with artificial ones.
"We actually just put it in the space where the old lens was and the eye naturally holds it in as it heals," said Vanderveen.
After two surgeries spaced a few weeks apart, Allie's vision slowly returned.
Children's Hospital Boston is one of the few places in the country where this surgery is routinely performed.
"We felt right from the beginning that we were getting the best care that we could," says Rob Defrancisco, Allie's father.
The hospital took care of not only Allie, but the whole family.
Today Allie's vision is great and she's very proud of her glasses, showing them to her friends. "None of them has 'em," she said.
The surgery that restored Allie's sight requires highly specialized expertise and state of the art equipment. We really are fortunate to have all that right in our own backyard.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
