Mum told baby's stye isn't dangerous - then daughter starts to go blind
A mum whose daughter developed what looked like a stye on her eye has shared the importance of parents following their gut instinct after her child began to lose her sight.
Brooke Pearce and her husband Bryan first noticed a mark on their daughter Scarlett's eye when she was around a month old. Brooke explained: "We originally thought it was just a stye, so we just kind of left it hoping that it would go away on its own. We were actually at a friend's wedding - and I have some pretty crazy health anxiety since having our daughter because she was early - and I said to my husband, ' I don't know if I'm overreacting, or if this is getting bigger'."
Just two days later, Bryan confirmed that the mark on their infant daughter's eye was "definitely getting bigger". So the parents went to their family doctor to get it checked out. "He told us it was the exact same as the birthmark on her leg and that it was totally fine," explained Brooke. "You see kids with them on their face and their body and they just go away as they grow up."
Scarlett's family were told that if her eye had been left she would have lost her sight (@lifewithbulls16)Not confident in their consultation the couple went to get a second opinion with a paediatric dermatologist. Brooke said: "We wanted more answers and weren't really concerned with the visual appearance of it or what people might think. It as more that she would get upset or frustrated at times, and as it got bigger, she wasn't able to open her eye all the way."
Brooke and Bryan were concerned about whether their daughter was able to see, so they asked doctors what the impact on her sight was. Brooke said; "Hers seemed to be growing overnight. It was getting os large that she would wake up in the morning and her eyelid would be fully closed. She couldn't see out of it and whatever she could see wasn't as prominent. Her eye wouldn't travel, it didn't seem as though she was using it as much."
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Brooke explained that doctors kept telling them that nothing was wrong and it would go away on its own. Concerned for her daughter, she carried out some research and found that generally growths like Scarlett's tend to stop growing by around 8 months old and don't require intervention unless they're growing rapidly.
"It was almost like she had a patch over her eye," explained Brooke. At their next appointment, it was found Scarlett had a deep tissue hemangioma, a benign information of the blood vessels that multiply more than they should.
"It made me feel as though my trust in our family doctor was completely gone," said Brooke. "They said everything was totally fine and then we followed up on the referral and they explained to us that this was actually causing her to go blind.
"They had us in for an emergency ophthalmology appointment because we didn't already have one that day. They were able to get us in and honestly, all my faith in our healthcare system close to home diminished because I was just like, 'If one person can tell me she's okay and I can go elsewhere and they tell me she's going blind, who do I even trust anymore.'
"It was heart-wrenching, but at the same time, it gave us peace," Brooke admits. "We did trust our gut. We knew that something was wrong with our baby and we were able to fight for the care that she needed and ultimately get that care."
After receiving her diagnosis, Scarlett was put on a "miracle drug" that helped Brooke explained: "They found it when they were dealing with children with heart issues and they just happened to have hemangiomas as well. When they were given this medication, it was shrinking the hemangiomas. So they tried it on children with deep tissue hemangiomas that were causing issues with breathing or eyesight. We gave her that medication once in the morning and once at bedtime."
While she was on the medication, the couple had to keep a close eye on Scarlett's bodily functions. Brooke said it was "a lot of tracking and keeping an eye on her breathing, her sugars, her blood pressures". The family had recent dermatology appointment where Scarlett was taken off that medication so is no longer on daily medication.
However, Scarlett isn't out of the woods yet. She still faces some challenges after it was discovered she has astigmatism in each eye. "It doesn't look as though the one with the hemangioma was any worse, but they do want to follow up and put drops in her eyes to dilate them," said Brooke. "They'll be able to look further into her eye and decide whether we need glasses or not."
The hemangioma has had an impact on Scarlett's vision. Brooke explained that the hemangioma was "basically telling her eye to shut off" and stunting its growth. She said: "If we hadn't done anything about it, by the age of seven, then she would have bene fully blind in that eye."
As they navigated this new life, Brooke and her family have leaned on each other and their community. She said: "It was difficult because we had just spent two weeks in the NICU and I had been in the hospital before that with the birth of our daughter, so having my son away from me at home, it sucked. We missed him and he missed us.
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"We were super fortunate that we have our in-laws nearby and my parents actually live with us, and they've all been an amazing support system. They were able to take my son and hang out with him and make him feel as normal as possible while we fought for Scarlett's care."
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