B.C. teen receives life-changing night vision surgery

15-year-old Dominic always stayed away from the shadows.

“Pretty much anywhere in a dim space I would not be able to see anything,” he said.

“From an infant, I noticed he would spot a light and just stare at it. I noticed he started to stumble a lot, stairs were really scary,” said Linda McInnis, Dominic’s grandmother.

Dominic was born with a rare genetic eye disorder, called Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), otherwise known as a type of night blindness.

The disorder affects about one in every 50,000 people. Doctors say this type of vision loss can be compared to losing a limb.

“It affects their ability to see properly, their ability to adjust to light. This is a progressive disease. Gradually, he would lose more and more vision, and eventually all vision,” explained Dr. Wai Ching Lam, Ophthalmologist at the Eye Care Centre at Vancouver General Hospital.

He required visual aids to help him at school and relied on his grandmother, his primary caretaker, to get around. But two surgeries earlier this year changed his life.

“We used surgery to inject the gene vector into his retina. We placed his gene, so his mutated gene can produce the protein. It can restore the visual cycle,” Dr. Lam said.

Like turning on a light

“It was instantaneous; it started to improve over time,” said McInnis.

“The first thing he said to us after the surgery was How do you guys see with everything so bright?”

“It’s been a turmoil, but it’s worth it. Just as much as it’s hard for us to let him go, it’s just as hard for him not to ask for help.”

Dominic is the first indigenous person in Canada to receive this surgery. Dr. Lam hopes more patients will come forward to seek help. 

“Because they’ve been told nothing can be done, but there is. Somebody like Dominik, who is 15, this changes everything. Their ability to go to college. For a physician, being able to offer that to our patients, you can’t say anything about it,” he added.

“It gives me a lot of self-confidence, it also helps a lot with independence,” Dominik said.

Dominic can now do things he has never done before — like riding an e-scooter and playing with his friends, even in the shadows.