A man from Arnold has been saved from blindness thanks to the keen eye of his optician.
Retiree John Campbell, 61, is now urging everyone to get their eyes tested regularly after a one-off appointment at the Arnold branch of Specsavers detected a life-changing condition which might have left him blind in a matter of months.
John had accompanied his wife to her appointment at the store on Front Street, when he decided to book himself in while he was there.
During the appointment, store director and optometrist, Vineet Nehra, spotted an anomaly and immediately referred him to hospital.
“It was very clear that John needed urgent medical attention,” said Vineet.
“He had a very advanced case of what we call acute glaucoma, which for him had been symptomless up to this point, and his eyes were struggling under a build-up of pressure on his optic nerve.
“We have very sophisticated glaucoma screening technology in store, which we offer as part of all regular eye tests, and this takes a photograph of the back of the eye, so I could see exactly what was going on.’
Vineet referred John to the eye casualty department at Queen’s Medical Centre for an urgent appointment, and John was diagnosed with advanced glaucoma.
John said: “I was in a state of complete shock after Vineet told me that I needed to go to hospital.
“I had just come back from holiday with my wife, and didn’t suspect anything was wrong – I had no symptoms whatsoever to indicate there might be a problem.”
John was treated with a course of eye drops before receiving specialist operations on each eye, called a trabeculectomy, which involves draining fluid from the back of the eye to release pressure.
John added: “I feel incredibly lucky to have received this treatment, and without the initial diagnosis and quick actions of Vineet at Specsavers, I would have already lost my sight to this condition. I really owe it to him that I still have my sight, and I would encourage everybody to go and have their sight tested on a regular basis – it’s such an important health check.”
Specsavers in Arnold also diagnosed my son with glaucoma at 12 years of age he is 18 now and is on eye drops for life but thank god they found it as it is very rare to get it the age he did so well done Specsavers