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What
Is
ROP?
Retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP,
happens when abnormal blood vessels
start developing at the back of the eye
of a premature baby.
Blood vessels that feed the retina
finish forming just before a full-term
baby is born.
“In a premature baby, these blood
vessels have not finished forming and
Thursday, January 22 2015 THENEWPAPER
THENEWPAPER Thursday, January 22 2015
continue to do so after the baby is
born. Most of the time, they will form
normally, but if smaller, abnormal
vessels start developing, the condition
is called ROP,” said Dr Cheryl Ngo, a
consultant at the Eye Surgery Centre
in the National University Hospital
(NUH).
She said the incidence and severity
of ROP rise with the degree of
prematurity at birth, low gestational
age and low birth weight.
If left untreated, the abnormal
vessels can lead to bleeding and
scarring in the retina.
They may also cause retinal
detachment, where the retina
separates or moves from its normal
news 3
position in the eye, leading to poor
vision or even blindness.
“It is important for the doctor
to check the baby’s eyes for any
abnormal vessels. If these vessels
are treated in time, it may help stop
retinal detachment,” Dr Ngo said.
The type of treatment depends on
the baby’s eye condition. The baby
may need laser treatment, freezing
treatment, injections in the eye or
surgery to repair retinal detachment.
Dr Ngo said her centre screens
premature babies for ROP every week.
“There have only been three cases
requiring treatment in NUH over the
past two years,” she said.
GRATEFUL: Baby
Tandin Wangmo
with with father
Karma Tenzin and
mother Tshearing
Eden before the
surgery (inset)
and after (far
right).
Others
whom
s’poreans
helped
PHOTOS: CHOO CHWEE
HUA AND COURTESY OF
MRS PETRINE QUEK
Baby may
see again,
thanks
to s’poreans
Bhutanese child gets
free treatment for
eye condition
Reports by JUDITH TAN
juditht@sph.com.sg
A blind baby from Bhutan, Tandin
Wangmo, could soon enjoy
the gift of sight, thanks to four
Singaporeans with hearts of gold.
The four — lawyer Quek Li Fei, 55, and
his wife Petrine, 59, her sister, retiree
Priscilla Yap, 67, and dentist Dr Chng
Chai Kiat, 39 — were on a week-long holiday in Bhutan last September when
they learnt of the 16-month-old’s plight.
Their tour guide, Mr Karma Tenzin,
had told them that his second daughter
would have no future as a blind person
in the kingdom, located at the eastern
end of the Himalayas.
Touched by his story, the Singaporeans paid for the toddler and her mother
to fly to Singapore not once, but twice —
first to restore her health and then her
sight.
Tandin was born premature at 27
weeks with a low birth weight of 950g.
She developed health issues, one of
which was retinopathy of prematurity
(ROP).
This disease in pre-term babies causes abnormal blood vessels to grow in
the retina, detaching it from the back of
the eye, resulting in blindness. (See report above.)
Mrs Quek told The New Paper at Gleneagles Medical Centre, where Tandin was having a check-up before flying
home today: “Her father Karma was our
guide. When he told us about Tandin,
our hearts went out to her. We decided
to help her.”
“My husband and I do not have children. To see someone this young dealt
with a bad hand at the start of her life,
we felt compelled (to help),” she added, eyes brimming with tears. She host-
GaNGa aND JaMUNa
shREstha
FOLLOW-UP: Eye surgeon Loh Boon Kwang examining Tandin Wangmo, while mother Tshearing Eden, 34, looks on.
ed the family at their landed home and
even got her 90-year-old mother and a
friend to chip in for the medical costs,
“which came up to about $18,000”.
“Others contributed a hongbao here
and there,” she said.
Dr Chng, who heads the Dental Service at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, rallied his doctor friends, many of
whom waived their consultation fees or
charged “a very modest surgery fee”.
If it was not for this, Tandin’s fees
would have been about $30,000.
GIVEN UP
Tandin’s parents had done all they
could to restore her eyesight after doctors in Bhutan told them just after she
was born that she has ROP.
They had all but given up hope after failing to find suitable treatment in
neighbouring India.
Her mother, Ms Tshearing Eden, 34,
said: “We took her first to Calcutta for
laser treatment but Tandin’s condition was worse than what the doctors
thought. We then took her to Chennai’s
Sankara Eye Hospital for an operation
but it was hopeless.”
Mrs Quek said: “When Tandin first
came in early November, she had just
recovered from three long bouts of
bronchitis. We couldn’t go through with
the eye surgery.”
The toddler was given a thorough
check-up, which was when doctors
found the Eustachian tubes (which connect the middle ears to the back of the
throat) were blocked.
“She also couldn’t hear,” Mrs Quek
said.
Otolaryngologist Dawn Teo operated
on Tandin’s ears at the same time as her
eye operation to clear the blockage.
Ms Tshearing and her baby went
To see someone
this young dealt
with a bad hand
at the start of
her life, we felt
compelled (to
help).
— Mrs Petrine Quek on
why she helped Tandin
Wangmo
home and returned to Singapore last
month for the eye operation after Tandin recovered fully from bronchitis.
On Dec 29, retina surgeon Loh Boon
Kwang operated on the baby for 1½
hours.
“Tandin’s ROP was very serious. I assessed that her left eye would respond
better to surgery, so I performed the
vitrectomy to remove the scars within
the left eyeball,” said Dr Loh, who has
a practice at Gleneagles Medical Centre.
“I had to cut away the scars carefully
and let the retina reattach itself.
“In layman’s terms, it’s like removing
the old gum that has pushed the wallpaper away from the wall and leaving the
paper to reattach again.
“The retina had been stretched by the
scars and was very thin. I had to make
sure I did not make a hole in it.”
Dr Loh said the instruments used
were designed for adults and not so
suitable for children as young as Tandin, who have much smaller eyes “but
there are no better alternatives”.
“This made the operation difficult.
There was no room for error,” he said.
Now all parties are waiting for Tandin’s retina to slowly reattach itself.
“Part of the retina is already reattaching back but the whole process could
take months to years,” Dr Loh said.
He gave Tandin a pair of prescription glasses after the operation and they
have helped the toddler become more
responsive to light and shadows.
The mother and daughter will be back
in April for an operation to fix her right
eye.
A grateful Ms Tshearing said: “We
were very lucky to have met so many
kind-hearted people from Singapore,
who were willing to help my daughter
see again.”
Who: Nepalese twins Ganga and
Jamuna were joined at the head when
they were born in 2000. In 2001, they
were separated by a team of doctors
in Singapore in a 97-hour operation
that attracted worldwide attention.
Amount donated:
$660,000
sURYaDI PUtRa
Who: The Bintan boy, 6, had a
tumour the size of an orange in his
head, causing dizzy spells and bouts
of nausea. He could not see, walk
or speak. A group of Singapore
volunteers and a doctor worked to
remove the growth.
Amount donated:
$30,958
MaRK JaIRUs MENDOZa
Who: The Filipino toddler’s parents
did not have enough money for a liver
transplant at a Hong Kong hospital
in 2006 despite raising funds there
and in the Philippines. A mystery
Singaporean couple based in Hong
Kong made a large donation to make
the transplant possible.
Amount received:
$52,300
NItChaREE
PENEaKChaNasaK
Who: Thai teen Nitcharee, who had
come here from Trang in Thailand
for a holiday and to study English,
fell on the train tracks at Ang Mo
Kio MRT station in April 2011. A train
pulling into the station at the time
severed one of her legs. The other leg
was so badly mangled it had to be
amputated.
Amount received:
$400,000