Gabby B.
Gabby has always been a very healthy, energetic, peaceful, and happy child. From a young age, she loved playing games, staying active, art, music, animals, spending time with family and friends, and worshipping the Lord.
When she was 9 years old one of her friends invited her to play soccer for the Palm Beach Predators, after a teammate broke her wrist. It turned out she was a natural and within two games she was offered a spot on the team for the remainder of the season. Gabby played soccer, mainly as the goalie, for one year and was the youngest and least experienced on her team, but helped them win multiple championships. She also played on a basketball team with her younger brother for 2 seasons.
The week of 4th of July 2017, Gabby was offered a fully paid scholarship to join the competitive travel team for the Palm Beach Predators. We were filled with excitement, because dozens of young ladies tried out, and only a handful were selected, and even fewer were offered fully paid scholarships.
Two days later Gabby and her younger brother were practicing soccer in the backyard when her brother kicked the ball to her, Gabby realized she couldn't see it. Moments later her father and I heard commotion, so we went downstairs to find a very upset Gabby repeating that she couldn't see anything. We called Bascom Palmer and were told a retinal specialist would meet us at the Palm Beach Gardens location within the hour. We arrived at their emergency entrance shortly after, and once the doctor arrived and opened the building we went to the office where he proceeded to examine her eyes and take pictures. The result was that she had a massive amount of fluid buildup underneath her retina in her right eye, a large amount of fluid in her left eye, issues with both of her optic nerves, and pressure dangerously close to glaucoma.
Her vision went from 20/20 to 20/800 in less than a minute and her right retina was beginning to tear into layers with pockets of fluid trapped between. The massive amount of fluid was causing pressure to build up in her eye which ended up resulting in excruciating headaches and debilitating bouts of vertigo. Since it was a holiday weekend and he had not treated such an aggressive attack on a child's eyes, he prescribed a diuretic eye drop for her until we could be seen by the top pediatric retinal specialist in Miami.
She had her first brain MRI on July 6th. By November her right retina had detached, she developed a macular hole and lost all central vision, fluid continued to build in her left eye, she started having trouble walking independently, and could no longer read or write without assistance.
Her first surgery was in November 2017. The surgery they performed is called a Vitrectomy. During this 3.5 hour surgery they tried to drain as much of the fluid from her right retina as possible, used a scleral buckle to reattach her retina, and injected a special bubble of gas into her eye to attempt to flatten her retina.
There is nothing at this time that they can do to help the optic nerve. She was able to come home the next day, and was required to lay face down in special medical equipment for 45 days. She was only allowed to lift her head long enough to get 3 drops in her eye 3 times a day, and she had to wear an alarm on her head that would alert us if she moved around too much.
We had to drive to Miami every week for the first month, and then once a month for the remainder of the year to watch her eyes very carefully.
Unfortunately the first surgery was only a partial success, so she had to have the same surgery again in March 2019. This time her surgeon tried an experimental technique of peeling the top layer of her retina back and sewing it over the macular tear, but unfortunately her retina was so damaged that it was unsuccessful. During the surgery an intraocular lens was implanted into her right eye, and she was required to lay face down for another 2 weeks.
Since her last surgery Gabby has begun experiencing neurological issues. She has simple, partial seizures followed by episodes of muscle weakness several days a week, which keeps her in bed more than she would like to be. Currently due to her vision issues she requires assistance with reading and completing her school work, cooking, and things that most people with regular vision take for granted. Even using magnifiers there is so much damage from the fluid in her eyes that reading is a challenge, and often triggers terrible headaches from the pressure building up.
She is no longer allowed to play any form of sports, due to the risk of her being hit in the head or increasing the pressure in her eyes. She can't fly in an airplane, dive in water, lift anything over 15 lb. drive, go on amusement park rides or trampolines, or even experience natural childbirth should she choose to have children in the future. Anything that could disrupt the pressure in her eyes, could cause her permanent and irreversible damage that could lead to complete blindness and glaucoma. She is also a fall risk due to seizures and her vision cause depth perception issues, so she is quite prone to accidents.
Throughout everything she has been through she has maintained a positive attitude, and more often than not has been the rock and strength of our family!
She is preparing for her next round of tests and is being carefully followed by a team of specialists including pediatric retinal surgeon, neuro-ophthalmologist, neurologist, geneticist, ENT, and primary care physician. To date she is legally blind in both eyes with her vision being 20/800 in her right eye and 20/400 in her left eye. She has developed a cataract in her right eye but removing it would weaken her eye further, so at this time they are leaving it alone. She has no central vision in her right eye.
There is no official diagnosis for her eye disease, because it is a rare, genetic condition that only appears to affect members of our family.
We are hoping with the newest medical technologies that she will get the answers she deserves.
She continues to strive to be as independent as possible and hopes to encourage others of all abilities to never give up hope, because with God and the love of family and friends, you can do all things.
