Our daughter Sarah was diagnosed with Strabismus in January 2007 (Struh biss' mus). Strabismus is a visual defect in which the eyes are misaligned and point in different directions. With strabismus, one eye may look straight ahead, while the other turns in or outward; upward or downward. Sarah's eyes turn in and up (one more severely, but both do it). She has good vision, but her eyes are not able to work together which creates a real problem for depth perception.
On December 10th of 2007 Sarah had eye surgery done to correct this. Dr. Baran at Children's Hospital in Seattle performed the 3 hour surgery. She used sutures on 2 different muscles on each eye to adjust the turning in and up.Our entire experience at Children's Hospital was so positive and we are so lucky to have such a wonderful facility here. Everyone is just great - from the person who checked us in, to the recovery nurse who wheeled Sarah back in to us - they are wonderful! It didn't seem like work to them - they just made us all feel comfortable and took such good care of Sarah.
The eye muscle surgery that Dr. Baran performed is not as black and white as some other eye surgeries - it's really more of an art. The area is so tiny and the adjustments she makes are between 6 and 10 millimeters - it really is amazing! When we thanked her again as we were leaving our last post surgery check-up, Dr. Baran said to us "No, thank you. It really is my privilege." She is quite humble and we really are so grateful. SantaClausNorthwest is a supporter of Children's of Seattle. If you would like to see how you can donate or volunteer go to
www.waystohelp.seattlechildrens.org
