Madeleine takes to anything I show her in an instant and shows motivation to learn,” Sophie says. “Madeleine is so incredibly bright that my role is to make activities visually accessible for her through use of high contrast, bold and enlarged pictures. Sophie’s been working on Madeleine’s counting, number and shape recognition, pencil control and pre-writing puzzles. Sophie explains that she’s been working with Madeleine to improve her coordination skills, encouraging her to participate in activities for a child of her age. Sophie has been involved in table-top activities with Madeleine to help her with skills needed for school,” Simone explains. We’ve added brightly coloured edging on steps, so she can see them clearer. She comes to our house and has suggested ways to help make our home more suitable for Madeleine. “We’ve had the consistency of care with her Occupational Therapist, Sophie. Madeleine started receiving support from VisAbility almost immediately after her diagnosis of Peters Anomaly. Madeleine was about five months old when her head turned in my direction, she just looked across, and a smile broke out on her face – that’s when I knew her vision was improving.” “I thought her vision would improve dramatically, but it was more gradual than that. “I thought once she had the cataract removed, it would be an instant transformation.” Madeleine needs glasses to do this as she no longer has a natural lens. This change in focus is normally performed by the natural lens in children. To improve her vision further, Madeleine now wears prescription bifocal glasses that allow her to focus on objects close to her. Madeleine has adapted well to pre-kindy thanks to our support In its place is a prescription contact lens – a substitute for her natural lens. Her lens was removed because of a congenital cataract. Madeleine has had a lensectomy in her right eye, the one that offers her sight. A lensectomy due to a congenital cataract Thankfully we didn’t have to follow this route, although she now can’t see anything out of that eye,” says mum Simone. At one point, her eye specialist considered a corneal transplant, but there were concerns the cornea would rupture because of her glaucoma and the pressure on the eye. “The underlying intraocular pressure in Madeleine’s left eye was high and the cornea was really thin. Glaucoma creates blockages in the drainage channels, so pressure builds because the fluid can’t flow out. It drains out where the cornea and iris meet. In a normal eye, clear fluid flows from the posterior chamber, around the lens and out of the front chamber of the eye. ![]() Glaucoma is where high pressure causes damage to the optic nerve. It wasn’t the reason she lost her vision, but it did add to her complications. Madeleine’s consultant is Dr Anthony Clark who specialises in paediatric ophthalmology.Īs well as Peters Anomaly (link opens in new window), glaucoma was present in Madeleine’s left eye. For us it was quite frustrating waiting to know what was wrong.” Receiving a diagnosis of Peters Anomaly It took us a while to get a diagnosis, because it is uncommon. It’s a rare condition and we don’t know anyone else who has it. “Once you get a diagnosis, then you hunt for more information online. Madeleine has a very rare condition known as Peters Anomaly When Madeleine’s parents received the news, naturally they wanted to find out more. It causes a thinning and clouding of the cornea and the detachment of the iris from the cornea. Peters Anomaly impacts the interior chamber of the eye. Madeleine was born with a rare congenital eye condition that affects less than 0.05% of the Australian population.
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