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 cataracts in both her eyes.² 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 glasses prescription to help with her vision problems.¹

Over the next few years, Cynthia starts to notice halos around lights.¹ Her vision seems to be getting worse at night, which means she struggles to drive home from work in the evenings.¹ Cynthia discusses this with her ophthalmologist and they decide to schedule cataract removal surgery, for her safety and her quality of life.³

After her cataracts have been removed, Cynthia recovers quickly and is able to work and drive without any interference in her vision.³

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 and he no longer feels safe cycling. He’s also become more sensitive to light^1a 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 cataract in his left eye, the same eye that was injured three years ago.² The optometrist explains that a traumatic cataract can form months or even years after the original injury happens.² The optometrist refers David to an ophthalmologist to discuss possible cataract surgery.

On discussion with his ophthalmologist David decides to schedule cataract removal surgery as soon as possible, to restore the vision in his left eye, making it easier for him to do his job and cycle safely.³

Mandla’s story*

When Mandla was 72 and living in a retirement village in Pretoria, he started noticing that his vision was getting cloudy and dim.¹ He shrugged it off and assumed that bad eyesight was just part of getting older. But as the years have gone by, his vision has progressively deteriorated and he now struggles to do things he enjoys, like reading, watching TV and doing woodwork.¹

Mandla’s family notices he is struggling with his eyesight and are concerned. His son convinces him to have an eye exam and takes him to an ophthalmologist, who find he has age-related cataracts in both eyes.² His right eye is cloudier than the left, but both eyes have advanced cataracts.¹ The ophthalmologist recommends cataract surgery in his right eye first and in his left eye 6 weeks later.⁴

After reading about cataracts, discussing the surgery with his family and thinking about it for a while, Mandla decides to go ahead with the cataract surgeries.

After the surgeries, his eyesight becomes much clearer and he starts to enjoy his favourite hobbies again.³ But about six months later, Mandla notices that some cloudiness has come back in his right eye.² He asks his son to take him to the ophthalmologist again. It turns out that he has a secondary cataract in this eye, 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 procedure right there in her 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!