A Tennessee mother of two didn’t realize that when she posted a Facebook photo of her 3-year-old daughter it would lead to a diagnosis of a rare eye condition.
Tara Taylor may have saved her daughter Rylee’s vision, when a few observant friends noted a particularly odd glow in the child’s left eye in a posted Facebook photo.
WREG reports that this observation prompted an eye exam which determined the little girl had Coats disease, a rare retinal disorder with the potential to cause blindness.
Coats disease (also called exudative retinitis) is an extremely uncommon congenital, non-hereditary disorder of the eye which if untreated can cause full or partial blindness. This is because the condition can promote an abnormal development of blood vessels behind the retina.
The retina is located at the back of the eye and is composed of millions of light-sensing cells. The retina quickly converts light into electrical signals and transmits them to the brain through the optic nerve. The brain then translates the electrical signals into the images we see. If the retina is torn or damaged in some way, vision acuity or varying degrees of blindness can result.
Coats disease can provoke retinal swelling and detachment and cause vision loss, typically in one eye. In those lucky cases of early detection, such as Rylee’s, treatments including laser therapy or cryotherapy can save or restore a person’s eyesight, explains Yahoo.
[Photo Credit: Fernandes BF, Odashiro]
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