Patient Stories
My optometrist changed the trajectory of my academic career – from struggling to graduating #1 in my class.
Jaylan Lenoir – Columbus, MS
At four years old, Jaylan knew that he was having trouble with his vision, but he didn’t know how to articulate it. Luckily, Jalen was a PreK student in a Headstart program that provided comprehensive eye exams to its students, conducted by Dr. Stacie Moore. During that initial exam, Dr. Moore discovered Jaylan had amblyopia (lazy eye) and astigmatism. The vision was significantly reduced in his left eye because of this condition and would require eyeglasses and a treatment plan to strengthen the vision in his weak eye.
Dr. Moore met with Jaylan’s parents to establish the best course of action. In addition to eyeglasses, Jaylan would wear a patch on his right eye three times a week for an hour at a time. The patch would help reset Jaylan’s brain to use his left eye and, subsequently, drop therapy would be used to strengthen the eye. But Jaylan would always need to corrective lenses.
Throughout his academic career, Jaylan maintained straight A’s and was an athlete. Today, he’s majoring in Chemical Engineering at Mississippi State and considering a career in medicine.
Seventy-five percent of the time, school vision screenings fail to detect a vision problem*.
Jaylan was fortunate his pre-school participated in a program that provided comprehensive eye exams to its students, because it is very likely a school screening would not have caught his condition. Seventy-five percent of the time, school vision screenings fail to detect a vision problem*. Mississippi optometrists recommend children have a comprehensive eye exam before they start school.
SOURCE: American Optometric Association
