Publications
Partners
It's been four years since she was able to work, run the marathons she so loved, do her makeup or choose her own outfits.
Life for Velindie February came to a standstill when what she thought was an ordinary eye infection led to the trauma of her corneas melting – and now, 40 operations later, she’s completely blind, capable only of discerning light and dark through one eye.
Velindie can barely move between the rooms of her home in Kleinbosch, Cape Town, without help and relies on her husband, Dale, and parents, Vivi and Lorraine, to do everything for her.
Her last hope is a trip to England where a team of specialists at a private eye hospital will hopefully help her to regain some of her sight. The family is saving every spare cent – and in the meantime, a life of perpetual darkness persists for the 43-year-old mom of two.
Her ordeal started in mid-2018 when Velindie went to
see her GP with suspected conjunctivitis, or pink eye. It didn’t seem like
anything eyedrops couldn’t cure so Velindie carried on as normal, going to her
job as a financial specialist and taking care of her kids, Jair (now 9) and
Zeevah (now 6).
But a few days later, she woke up and her vision was blurred. She looked at her phone but the screen looked like it’d been smeared with Vaseline. She was unable to read messages and battled to type too.
Her eyes itched terribly and wouldn’t stop tearing. It felt like a film had been stretched over her eyeballs, transforming her surroundings into a blur of light and dark shapes.
“My husband was at work,” she says. “I called him and said something was very wrong.”
Velindie went back to her GP, who referred to a specialist – and the diagnosis was devastating.
Her corneas, the transparent part of the eye that covers the iris and pupil, were detaching and melting off.
Corneal melt is a devastating complication of corneal disease, a rare condition that occurs when an ulcer in the eye becomes affected or when bacteria attack the cornea.
Velindie was admitted for surgery where specialists used amniotic membrane tissue to try to repair her corneas. This tissue is harvested from donor placentas and has been used to treat corneal disease since the 1990s.
The tissue has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial (an agent that kills microorganisms), analgesic and cell-adhesion properties and doctors hoped the treatment would reverse the damage to Velindie’s eyes.
But the results were heartbreaking. Velindie’s body repeatedly rejected the tissue and she developed more infections which led to more and more surgery.
She also developed glaucoma, a condition that damages the optic nerves that connect the eye to the brain and is often caused by pressure from a build-up of fluid.
Doctors implanted draining tubes to relieve the pressure but there was they could do to stop the nightmarish melting of her corneas.
Velindie has also had seven cornea transplants – three on her left eye and four on her right. But each time, her eye rejected the new lens and she was left devastated and disappointed.
Velindie invites YOU to look at the cornea of her left eye, which is starting to detach from the rest of her eye after surgery in February, when surgeons once again tried an amniotic membrane transplant.
Although the doctors knew another operation wouldn’t restore her sight, they hoped it would provide some relief from the constant pain – but again, there was little respite.
“Every time I blink, it’s like something rough scrapes over my eyes. I’m in constant pain,” she says. “One doctor even wanted to sew my eyelids shut for six to 12 months to see if my eyes would heal.
“Another advised against it because it would be too traumatic for me. I also didn’t want to do it because I can at least still distinguish light and dark with my left eye.”
The ordeal hasn’t only changed Velindie’s life, but her family’s lives too.
Her retired parents suddenly had to take care of their grown daughter again. Initially Lorraine drove from her home in Kraaifontein every day to look after Velindie, who’d become scared to even get out of bed by herself.
READ MORE| My Story| My four-year-old has a rare genetic condition that causes her to harm herself
But eventually the situation became so demanding that Lorraine and Vivi sold their home and moved in with Velindie, Dale and the kids.
Dale, a computer specialist, does as much for his wife as possible. He sets out outfits for her every day, cooks dinner every night, helps Velindie to eat and helps the children with their homework.
He’s also become his wife’s hairdresser and stylist. He colours and cuts her hair, buys her clothes and applies her makeup. Everything his wife used to do for herself, for him and the children, is now Dale’s responsibility.
“It’s not easy at all and it was especially hard at first,” he says. “But I’ll never abandon my wife. I made a vow in church in front of many witnesses. I’m here for her and this is where I’ll stay.”
Velindie initially battled feelings of helplessness. “I no longer felt like a wife, I no longer felt like a mother. What was my purpose? I couldn’t do anything I used to do.
“But counselling helped a lot. I’m grateful to the angels who were sent to help me through this. I won’t let my circumstances define me.”
Dale and Velindie will be heading to the UK in November for their first consultation with specialists in eye immunity at London’s Moorfield Private Eye Hospital.
South Africa doesn’t have doctors who specialise in this field, Dale says. The London specialists are hoping stem cell therapy will stop Velindie’s body from rejecting cornea transplants – but it’s a complicated process.
Velindie no longer has corneal epithelium, tissue that covers the front of the cornea and acts as a barrier to protect the eye. This is one of the reasons her body rejects transplanted corneas – without epithelium there’s a high chance of the body expelling something it perceives as foreign.
“With stem cell treatment, there’s a greater chance of the epithelium growing so doctors can try another cornea transplant and hopefully restore at least some of Velindie’s sight,” Dale says.
There’s still a long road ahead. “The visit to the London specialist will be the start of another journey for us,” Velindie says. “First they need to pop out the damaged cornea and then restructure the eye before I can have an op to try to restore my sight.
“They can only operate on one eye at a time because it’s too traumatic for the body otherwise, so it’s a case of waiting for one eye to heal before they can start on the other. Only then can they start thinking of doing the cornea transplant.
“So it will be at least 18 month after one eye is ‘normal’ enough for the transplant and my situation is more complex because of the melting issues.”
But giving up isn’t an option. “I really want to see my family again,” Velindie says. “That’s the main reason I’m doing all this. Seeing them again will make it all worth it.”
