A delivery driver has said she could have lost her sight if she’d put off a visit to an opticians in Arnold any longer.
53-year-old delivery driver Lesley Grocock started to experience black dots across her vision she just put it down to getting older.
What she didn’t realise was that this was in fact, a sign of something far more sinister.
When the symptoms persisted, Lesley decided she’d book in to see her local optician at Specsavers on Front Street.
“Like so many of us I’m always rushing around and just hadn’t found the time to make the appointment,’ she said.
“As it turns out, if I’d left it just a couple of weeks longer, I could have lost the sight in my eye – it doesn’t bear thinking about.”
Lesley was seen by the store’s optical director Vineet Nehra who carried out a full eye examination including using the store’s OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) machine, which provides a detailed structural scan of the eye. Vineet quickly picked up that all wasn’t as it should be – suspecting Lesley was suffering from a retinal tear in her right eye.
The retina is the light-sensitive layer of tissue that lines the back of the eye. It’s responsible for receiving light and translating it into electrical signals to send to the brain, where it creates the images we see.
‘Vineet explained that I needed to go to hospital straight away before it got any worse and made me an urgent referral,’ adds Lesley.
‘I’m prone to being a bit panicky but he was really good and kind, helping to keep me calm.
‘I saw a doctor at the hospital who said how lucky I was to have caught it – if I’d left it much longer, I could have lost my sight. I was booked in for an operation the next day at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham.’
Lesley underwent an operation under general anaesthetic to repair the tear with three stitches and the insertion of a silicone rubber implant. Six weeks later she underwent another procedure in hospital to remove the silicone as well as a cataract that had formed. After five months of recuperation Lesley is now back at work.
‘I’m so thankful to Vineet for spotting the problem and for his kindness and professionalism. I couldn’t fault him and can’t thank him enough for what he did for me,’ continues Lesley. ‘I never imagined that the black spots might have been as a result of something potentially so serious. I’d never even heard of a retinal detachment.
‘I’d recommend an eye test to everyone now; you shouldn’t shrug off problems with your sight.’
Specsavers Arnold optical director, Vineet Nehra, said: ‘I’m so pleased that Lesley is on the road to a full recovery.
“Cases like hers, although not common, do demonstrate that you shouldn’t put off any changes with your vision, and we encourage anyone who is worried about their sight to check with their local optician.’
