Old woman cured of back pain suddenly regained sight after 11 years of blindness

Strangely, while participating in a study on back pain, the electrical stimulation method used by scientists to treat back pain unexpectedly helped her see clearly.

Have a rare type of glaucoma

Lynley Hood, 80, is a resident of Dunedin, New Zealand. She used to work as a writer and won several literary awards in her home country. One night in 2011, while reading a book, Hood suddenly lost vision in her left eye, according to the New Zealand Herald .

Chuyện lạ: nghiên cứu chữa đau lưng vô tình làm sáng mắt cụ bà mù 11 năm - Ảnh 1. — Mrs. Lynley Hood regained her sight after receiving electric shock to her head.

Thinking she was tired, she went to bed. But the next morning, her vision was still blurry. She went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a rare form of glaucoma that caused her to lose central vision in her left eye and her right eye to become so blurry that she could barely see. The condition left her virtually blind, and unable to read or write.

Doctors said the type of glaucoma she had would never improve. All that could be done was to keep it from getting worse. In 2020, Hood fell and broke her pelvis, leaving her with severe back pain. But what seemed like a terrible accident led to an opportunity to regain her sight.

Back pain treatment suddenly clears eyes

Back pain gave her the opportunity to participate in a chronic pain treatment study by scientists at the University of Otago (New Zealand) in 2022. Her wish when participating in the study was to improve her persistent back pain. However, the results came in an unexpected direction.

In the study, volunteers were asked to wear a special helmet-shaped cap. Inside the cap were electrodes that provided electrical stimulation to the patient.

The volunteers were divided into two groups. One group received deep brain stimulation, while the other group was a control group and only received electrical stimulation to the scalp. Hood was in the second group.

But after four weeks of electrical stimulation on the surface of her scalp, Hood’s vision suddenly returned completely. Neither the research team nor her ophthalmologist could believe it could happen.

“It was amazing, her vision improved so much that the ophthalmologist said it was a miracle. A miracle of chance,” Dr Divya Adhia, one of the study's leaders, told the Otago Daily Times.

Hood has since started reading and writing again. The researchers are not sure what helped her regain her sight. They are currently conducting another study alongside the chronic pain study to find out, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Source link