Volunteers save Thai athlete’s sight

DOCTORS volunteering with Special Olympics saved the sight of a visiting athlete after routine health screening revealed he had a devastating eye disease that would have left him blind.

The 29-year-old Thai sportsman who was suffering from glaucoma was taken immediately to the Mater Hospital in Dublin for further tests and contacts have been set up for him in Thailand so that he can receive treatment when he returns home.

Without treatment, he could expect to be completely blind within 18 months and while doctors can not reverse the damage already done, surgery will save his remaining sight.

The athlete's condition was picked up by eye specialists working voluntarily as part of the Healthy Athlete Programme in the RDS which encourages all athletes taking part in the games to come in for checks on their eyes, hearing, teeth, feet and overall fitness.

Such routine health care is not always available to athletes in their home countries.

It emerged the Thai sportsman had never had an eye test before while several of the Afghan delegation reported never having any kind of medical examination previously.

But even athletes from first world countries with good levels of healthcare can develop problems that go unnoticed because most attention is focused on their learning disability.

"They often have so many other problems going on that something like an eye test can get neglected," explained Lynda McGivney Nolan, clinical director of the Opening Eyes optometry programme who, along with fellow optometrist, Nichola Kennedy, has a constant queue of athletes waiting to be tested.

"Also, many of the athletes, because of their learning disability, are not going to say that they can't see properly or that things are blurred because they can't verbalise the difficulty or they may not recognise they have a problem. They often don't know how normal vision is supposed to be."

Many sight problems found among Special Olympics athletes are directly related to their learning disability. People with Down Syndrome for example are more prone to short-sightedness and squints.

The first test an athlete is put through is for distance vision which is checked using wall charts where, instead of letters, four simple shapes a circle, square, heart and house are arranged in rows of decreasing size.

To get over translation difficulties, the athletes are asked not to call out the shape they are asked to recognise but to point to its match on a hand held chart by their side.

Athletes found to have seeing difficulties are given a full eye test on the spot by one of 58 Irish optometrists who have taken time off work to help out (there are only 350 in the country), using testing equipment donated by specialist eye care companies. Anyone needing glasses is fitted with frames and lenses before they leave.

But as well as providing immediate help for athletes with eye trouble, the programme is also creating an invaluable database of information which will be shared with practitioners around the world who are working to improve the health of people with learning disabilities.

A similar aim underpins the newest addition to the Healthy Athlete programme, the Fit Feet podiatry programme, which is having its inaugural outing in Ireland.

Fifteen volunteering Irish podiatrists are checking athletes for developmental problems, osteoporosis, fungal infections and a whole range of other conditions which can mar their sporting performances and store up serious medical problems for the future.

One of the initiatives involves examining for flat feet, a condition affecting many people with Down Syndrome, and high arches, which are common among people with conditions like cerebral palsy.

"We're trying to compile information about how these conditions develop and find ways to prevent them but for the athletes right now we're also trying to educate them and their coaches about the importance of getting the right training shoe," said programme founder Patrick Nunan, an American practitioner in Ohio.

"It's something that gets overlooked because I can tell you if my shoe isn't comfortable but many of these athletes won't complain like me."

Mr Nunan is in negotiations with manufacturers about creating a shoe insert that can be heated in a portable oven and moulded to the shape of the foot so that he can provide on the spot relief for athletes at future Fit Feet sessions. He expects by the next world games this will be one of the most popular features of the Healthy Athlete Programme.