Patient Stories

Cynthia’s story*

Cynthia is a 60-year-old dressmaker who lives in Johannesburg. She has started noticing her vision becoming blurry¹ when she’s trying to work and the colours of the fabrics she works with look faded and have a yellowish tint.¹

Cynthia makes an appointment for an eye exam. Her eye care professional finds that she has age-related cataracts² in both her eyes. The cataracts are not very developed and are progressing slowly.¹ Cynthia decides not to have cataract surgery right away. Instead, her eye care professional gives her a new spectacles prescription to help with her vision problems.¹

Over the next few years, Cynthia notices a halo around lights.¹ Her vision seems to be getting worse at night,¹ which means she struggles to drive home from work in the evenings. She decides to schedule cataract removal surgery, for her safety and her quality of life.³

After her cataracts have been removed, Cynthia recovers quickly³ and is able to work and drive¹ without any interference in her vision.

David’s story*

David is a 34-year-old web developer living in Cape Town. Three years ago, he was in a cycling accident and had a few serious injuries – including an eye injury – which he recovered from. But lately David has been noticing some cloudiness in his vision,¹ which is making it difficult to focus on his work. He’s also become more sensitive to light¹ and sometimes he even notices double vision in his left eye.¹

David goes for an eye exam, and his optometrist finds that he has a traumatic cataract² in his left eye, the same eye that was injured three years ago. The optometrist explains that a traumatic cataract can form months or even years after the original injury happens.²

David decides to schedule cataract surgery with an ophthalmologist as soon as possible, to restore the vision in his left eye and make it easier for him to do his job.¹

Mandla’s story*

When Mandla was 70 and living in a retirement village in Pretoria, he started noticing that his vision was getting cloudy¹ and dim.¹ He shrugged it off and assumed bad eyesight was just part of getting older. But as the years have gone by, his vision has got so bad that he struggles to do the things he enjoys,¹ like reading, watching TV and doing woodwork.

Mandla’s family notices he is struggling with his eyesight¹ and are concerned. His son convinces him to have an eye exam and takes him to an ophthalmologist, who finds he has age-related cataracts² in both eyes. His right eye is cloudier than the left,¹ but both eyes have advanced cataracts. The ophthalmologist recommends cataract surgery and, after thinking about it for a while, Mandla agrees.

After the surgery, his eyesight becomes much clearer and he starts to enjoy all his favourite hobbies again,³  but about 6 months later Mandla notices that some cloudiness has come back.² He asks his son to take him to the ophthalmologist again and it turns out that he has a secondary cataract,² which is common for people who have had cataract removal surgery.² The ophthalmologist is able to treat it quickly and easily with a painless laser procedure right there in his rooms.²

After this, Mandla enjoys clear vision again³ and is especially happy that he can see properly when he meets his beautiful grandson for the first time!