Shanmukhapriya was just six years old when her mother realized that her young child was experiencing problems with her vision. Shanmukhapriya could see blurred images of people at a distance, but could not identify them. Upon further observation, Shanmukhapriya’s mother noticed that a small spot was visible on her cornea.
Dr Pravin Vaddavalli first examined Shanmukhapriya at the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute. One of the key challenges of diagnosing a child so young was that she was not able to verbalize the problem that she was facing. Upon further examination, the doctors suspected that she was suffering from Keratoconus, a condition wherein the cornea starts bulging outward. Shanmukhapriya’s parents were informed about the necessary precautions that they needed to take to ensure that her condition did not deteriorate further.
A few years later when Shanmukhapriya turned nine, doctors at the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute performed collagen cross-linking for her left eye. This procedure is minimally invasive and halts the progression of corneal ectatic conditions. This helped to stabilize Shanmukhapriya’s Keratoconus and prevented it from getting worse. A year later, when she turned ten, doctors performed a corneal transplant for her right eye.
After the transplant, Shanmukhapriya’s vision improved significantly. While her left eye still has some problems, thanks to the corneal transplant, Shanmukhapriya’s right eye was able to regain normal vision and she was able to get close to 95% vision in her left eye.
Thanks to these procedures, Shamukhapriya will be able to grow into a normal teenager with normal vision. Her treatment has helped her regain normalcy in her daily life and she is now able to focus on her studies.