[il-talk] I want to get the lists opinion of theblindnessattitudes displayed in this article.

Thu Apr 18 20:55:34 UTC 2013

The thing that is troubling about the article is the depiction of this 
woman's blindness; I was particularly struck by the line that she couldn't 
determine when it was an appropriate time for her to talk with her children 
after school.  To the public, this suggests that her problems are intrinsic 
to blindness itself, and have nothing to do with an adjustment period and 
the process of learning new skills.  I'm glad that cornea transplants work 
for some people, but the rest of us are fine, too.

Debbie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Edwin" <conibodyworks at gmail.com>
To: "'Jemal Powell'" <derek2872 at yahoo.com>; "'NFB of Illinois Mailing List'" 
<il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 7:00 PM
Subject: Re: [il-talk] I want to get the lists opinion of 
theblindnessattitudes displayed in this article.

> Well I for one am vary happy for this woman.
> No shame or guilt should be associated with either being blind or having 
> any
> amount of sight whether that level of sight is low or high.
> Those are my thoughts on this article.
> Cordially,
> Edwin
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: il-talk [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jemal 
> Powell
> Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 2:44 PM
> To: NFBof Illinois Mailing List
> Subject: [il-talk] I want to get the lists opinion of the 
> blindnessattitudes
> displayed in this article.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Forwarded Message -----
> From: NFB-NEWSLINE Online <nfbnewsline at nfb.org>
> To: Jemal Powell <derek2872 at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 5:50 PM
> Subject: Article from Chicago Tribune News 2013 04 15
>
>
>
> TRIBUNE VOICES. Tinley Park mother looks on eye donors' gifts with thanks.
> Barbara Brotman. Look around.  . What would you miss seeing most if you 
> went
> blind? The sunrise. The lake. The spot in your living room where the 
> morning
> sun pours in. Your spouse. Your child. Your friends. All the sights your
> eyes drink in -- words on a page, expressions on a face, the center line
> down a road -- what if they started to fade before your eyes? For Sarah
> Mittler, it began with her clock. I looked up at the clock and was like,
> 'Holy cow,' " said Mittler, a mother of five in Tinley Park. I thought it
> must be dirty. She took the clock off the wall and cleaned it. It still
> looked dirty. Everything was starting to become blurry. Her kitchen, the
> stairs, her children's faces, utensils in the drawer -- they all ran
> together like mud. It was as if her eyes were coated with petroleum jelly.
> She thought there was something wrong with the lights at the grocery 
> store.
> She asked
> her husband why he had installed dimmers at home. While driving, she
> groused at all the motorists crossing the lane into hers. But there was
> nothing wrong with the lights. And she was the one crossing the lane 
> lines.
> Mittler had Fuchs' endothelial dystrophy, in which cells inside the cornea
> deteriorate. Fluid builds inside the cornea, causing vision problems and
> potentially blindness. It usually proceeds slowly, over years. In 
> Mittler's
> case, it was galloping. Within months, she could barely see in the 
> mornings
> when the fluid buildup was greatest. Her children had to guide her down 
> the
> stairs. Her teenage daughter, Grace, had to drive the younger kids to
> school. Mittler used a hair dryer on her eyes, which dries out the 
> blisters
> caused by the condition, and about which she says, "You think your hair is
> bad in the morning? Blow-dry your eyes. It helped, but only temporarily. 
> She
> couldn't see her children's faces, read their moods, sense the time for a
> quiet after-school conversation. Slowly, things were being taken away," 
> she
> said. After a terrifying drive where she couldn't see the traffic signal 
> at
> a major intersection, "I put my keys on the counter and told my husband, 
> 'I
> cannot do this any more. I am going to kill them or someone else,' " she
> said. The next week she saw her doctor at Loyola University Health System.
> She was going blind, she told him. But please, could he just slow down the
> process long enough for her to see a few last things? Her daughter Aine
> graduating eighth grade. Her son, Tommy, playing on the baseball travel
> team. Grace picking out her dress for homecoming. Just one more moment 
> with
> each of her children, she pleaded; just one more time seeing her grandson 
> in
> her arms. But she wouldn't need one more moment, the doctor told her. She
> would have many moments, for years to come. She was an ideal candidate for 
> a
> corneal transplant. More than 1,160 people in Illinois received
> corneal transplants last year. Mittler had hers at Loyola in 2009. The
> morning after the transplant on her left eye, her husband, Tom, lifted the
> eye patch to put in drops. He told her to keep her eye shut to protect it
> against the light. She opened the eye anyway. There were 4 of her 5
> children, gathered to watch the unveiling. She could see them. It turned 
> out
> that her post-surgical eye wept as well as it saw. And it saw very well. 
> She
> could see the mortar between the bricks in the house across the street, 
> she
> excitedly told the community engagement coordinator at the Illinois 
> Eye-Bank
> by phone the next day. The petunias the neighbors had planted. Lights on 
> the
> Christmas tree. Cracks in the wall. She was, like, 'The house is so 
> dusty,'
> " said Grace, 19. We're like, 'Can you get the doctor to redo the surgery?
> Five days later, at a farmers market, "I was running around like a crazy
> person. The sunflowers, the peppers, the vibrancy of the colors ... I
> was (saying), 'Oh, my gosh, look at this! Look at this! Look at this! She
> had the surgery on her right eye a few months later. She now sees so well
> that she no longer wears glasses. Mittler wrote letters of thanks to the
> families of both donors. Such letters are delivered anonymously by the
> Illinois Eye-Bank, leaving further contact up to those involved. Her first
> donor was a 10-year-old whose cause of death the family did not specify. 
> The
> family of her second donor chose not to respond. Mittler is well aware of
> the sadness irrevocably attached to her joy. Before her second surgery, "I
> thought, 'Oh, gosh, this is between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Somebody 
> is
> going to be really grieving,' " she said. To see that somebody in that 
> depth
> of grief could still turn around and want to do good for someone else ... 
> In
> my world, they're a hero," she said. Mittler is now an ambassador for the
> Illinois Eye-Bank, telling her story at public events and urging
> people to become donors. On Thursday, she will participate in Loyola's
> annual candle lighting ceremony honoring donors and families who have
> donated organs or tissue through the state's Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue
> Network. The hardest part of being a cornea recipient is when I share my
> story to donor families," she said. It's a very humbling experience. They
> come up and look into my eyes. A year after her surgeries, the Eye-Bank
> coordinator teasingly asked if Mittler still saw dirt in her house. She
> still saw the dirt, Mittler told her, but she didn't care; there was too
> much else to see. And thanks to two people she will never meet, she can 
> see
> it all.   ----------  blbrotman at tribune.com  This article is provided to 
> you
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