The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

THE “working population is going blind due to avoidable conditions” like diabetes and hypertension, according to a Bahamian ophthalmologist who is stressing the need for annual examinations and proper eye care.

Dr Dawn Russell-Hermanns ,one of few medical retina and vitroretinal surgeons in the Bahamas, stressed the importance of checking one’s eyes on a consistent basis, increasing the likelihood of detecting ailments that could be quietly developing.

Diabetes is one of the conditions where those diagnosed are unaware they need to check their eyes because their condition can cause blindness.

“I have had a lot of patients that did not know they had to have an eye exam. Diabetes can cause you to go blind. And sadly enough it is happening in a lot of our younger populations.

“I have had to treat a lot of patients in their 30s and 40s. I have met a lot of patients who are blind and are already too far gone.”said Dr Russell-Hermanns.

There is a lot of ignorance concerning diabetes and the effect it can cause on the eyes. Many people do not have an eye exam at the point of diagnosis.

“That is the reason why we need to do much more education because getting checked at diagnosis doesn’t happen.

“Many of them don’t see the need to check their eye because they think everything is OK. But you wouldn’t really know that something is happening until it is too late or until things are really severe.”

Some of the effects can start with bleeding in eyes, at the centre of vision. It is unrecognisable without a comprehensive test where the blood vessels in the eyes are examined, said Dr Russell-Hermanns.

“The treatment is another scary thing for a lot of Bahamians. Initially when we see you, if it is early we may need to do eye injections. When Bahamians hear that they are like “ohh my God”….but that is the new standard of care and is something that works very well. “These are all early things we can do in the office. If it gets really bad then we need to do surgery in the operating room.”

Diabetes is not the only condition that can cause blindness. People with high blood pressure can also develop blindness if their eyes go unchecked.

“You can get strokes in your eyes. Sickle cell can cause blindness, even babies who are born too early can get a disease that can cause blindness. So we have to do screenings consistently to make sure people don’t have eye problems.

“If you have a family member who is diabetic or has high blood pressure I would just get it checked every 12-18 months. And once a person reaches age 40 they should be getting their eyes tested every 12 months.”

Dr Russell-Hermanns is the founder of Bahama Retina & Eye Care Services. She obtained her medical degree from the University of the West Indies at the Trinidad and Tobago campus. It was during her internship at the Princess Margaret Hospital Nassau, when Dr Russell-Hermanns discovered her love for ophthalmology.

After rotating through the various medical specialties during her internship, she found ophthalmology to be one of the few specialties in medicine where patients could obtain almost instant gratification and appreciation for what is done.

“When I was an intern at the hospital several years ago we had to send a lot of people over to the US for treatment that we could not offer here. Sometimes many of the patients could not afford. And if you couldn’t afford it you would turn blind. So I did not want to only become only an ophthalmology or an eye doctor but I wanted to treat diseases of the eyes like glaucoma, diabetes and hypertension,” she said.

It was the reason she opened her practice in Sandy Port that is the only private facility to offer retina specialty treatments.

Dr Russell-Hermanns also works as a full time consultant at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), which is the public tertiary hospital in The Bahamas.