Pioneer surgery lets mum see baby again

GISBORNE HERALD

NEW OUTLOOK: Kiriana and Jason Thackeray, with daughter Te Amorangi. Mrs Thackeray says she is grateful that her restored eyesight means she can see her daughter grow up.

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A young mother who went blind suddenly when her baby was just seven months old has had her sight restored by a Wellington surgeon in an operation believed to be a New Zealand first.

Kiriana Thackeray woke up early one day in February to find her world had gone dark. She fumbled for the light switch but it made no difference.

"That's when I started really panicking," the 29-year-old from Wairoa remembers.

Mrs Thackeray's eye problems started in adolescence, when she was diagnosed with keratoconus, which causes the cornea (the surface of the eye) to grow into the shape of a rugby ball.

A normal eye is rounded, more like a soccer ball.

She endured 12 operations on her right eye before suffering a detached retina, forcing doctors to remove it.

At 18, she was completely blind for two months after developing a cataract on her other eye.

"Back then, I knew that I would be able to see again ... but this year, I was really scared.

"My worst fear was that I would never see my baby again."

Specialists at Hastings Hospital decided on a "wait and see" approach.

Jason Thackeray, a detective constable in Wairoa, stopped work to look after his wife and child.

After a week with no improvement, the Thackerays were told there was nothing the doctors treating her could do, but there was a surgeon in Wellington who might be able to help.

They drove straight to Wellington and saw eye surgeon Steve Mackey at 10am the next day.

He immediately diagnosed the problem – the corneal transplant from her previous cataract operation had peeled off and fallen into the back of her eye.

"I couldn't stop crying when I first got there, but he was so confident he could fix it that we started to have hope for the first time."

A special device, called a verisyse phakic intraocular lens, was ordered from Ireland and took three weeks to arrive. "We were told it's the first time an operation like this has been done in New Zealand."

Five days after the surgery, the couple were driving home to Wairoa and Mrs Thackeray found she was able to read road signs at a distance that her husband could not.

She says her sight is now the best it has been – she had not seen stars in the sky since she was 17.

And being reunited with her daughter, Te Amorangi, was "like seeing her for the first time".

"During the time I couldn't see, I missed out on so much. She would crawl up to me and try to catch my eye, but when I didn't respond, she would just crawl away.

"She's an IVF baby, we waited six years for her ... it seemed so cruel that having finally got her, I wouldn't see her grow up ... Dr Mackey has given us our life back."

Dr Mackey said it had been challenging to find the right surgical solution for Mrs Thackeray because of the complexity of her case.

"It was a pretty tough thing for a young woman, and a new mother, to be dealing with, and she was inconsolable the first time she came in. It's been great to watch her recovery, very satisfying for all of us."

Mrs Thackeray said that, without the police health insurance plan, she would still be waiting for surgery.

"If we hadn't had that, I wouldn't have my sight back ...

"You never honestly know what's going to happen tomorrow, you could wake up and not be able to see, so we're so grateful for what we've got."

DELICATE TOUCH

Kiriana Thackeray's verisyse procedure

* Clear jelly-like fluid inside her eye is drained – a procedure known as a vitrectomy.

* Lens inserted through a 6mm cut in the white of the eye and centred in front of the pupil, between the iris and the cornea.

* The lens' claw-like attachments each snag a fold in the iris to hold it in place.