In a Nutshell:
- Lynley Hood, an 80-year-old author from New Zealand, accidentally regained her vision, lost to glaucoma 12 years ago, during a placebo treatment for her chronic back pain.
- Participating in a University of Otago study, Lynley was part of the placebo group receiving superficial scalp electrical stimulation. Remarkably, after four weeks, her vision restored almost to full capacity, a result that left her ophthalmologist stunned.
- Intrigued by this unforeseen recovery, the study team, led by Dr. Divya Adhia, plans to conduct further research into how scalp electrical stimulation might aid in restoring eyesight, potentially leading to a revolutionary breakthrough in treating blindness.
In a surprising twist of medical events, a placebo treatment designed to alleviate chronic back pain inadvertently restored the vision of an 80-year-old blind woman.
Lynley Hood, from Dunedin, New Zealand, an award-winning writer, had lost her eyesight over a decade ago to a rare form of glaucoma and found the world in color once again thanks to a back pain treatment study at the University of Otago.
Hood’s journey into darkness started 12 years ago when her left eye suddenly became blurry while reading a book.
Assuming it was due to fatigue, she retired for the night, only to wake up to a world that hadn’t regained its clarity.
She was soon diagnosed with a rare form of glaucoma and informed by her doctors that there would likely be no improvement in her condition.
Hood eventually became legally blind, which put a pause on her passion for reading and writing.
But life had an unexpected plot twist in store for Hood.
A painful fall in 2020 fractured her pelvis, leading to severe back pain, which strangely, became the pathway to her unexpected vision recovery.
This incident led her to participate in a chronic pain treatment research project conducted by the University of Otago.
The project, split into two groups, involved participants undergoing electrical stimulation sessions while wearing specially wired helmets.
One group received electrical stimulation directly to the brain, while the placebo group, including Hood, received superficial scalp-level stimulation.
Unbeknownst to her, Hood was in the placebo group.
After just four weeks of electrical stimulation, Hood discovered her vision had returned to nearly 100%.
The dramatic improvement left even her ophthalmologist astounded, who couldn’t resist but call it a “miracle.”
“Miracle is not a word we use very often in science, but it was — an accidental miracle,” project co-leader Dr. Divya Adhia told the Otago Daily Times.
“It wasn’t the intended outcome, but to see that my research has actually made an impact on people is incredible.”
Having lived with severely impaired vision for over a decade, Hood is now readjusting to a life that’s in clear sight.
With her vision restored, she is eager to return to her love for writing.
“At first, I thought I was imagining it,” Hood said, expressing disbelief at the return of her sight.
She detailed how the electrical currents, traced by advanced equipment, stimulated her retina, sparking an array of signals down her optic nerve and restoring her vision.
The intriguing question of how the electrical stimulation managed to bring Hood’s eyesight back remains unsolved, but Dr. Adhia and her team are eager to find out.
They’re now planning another study to understand this unexpected visual resurgence better, potentially opening a new window of hope for others living with blindness.
Source
David Barron
April 8, 2020 at 6:32 pm
Our health professionals should always be tested immediately if requested. Who ever refused to test this health care worker should no longer be employed by the Ford Hospital, in fact she should be brought up on charges of negligent homicide.
Lily
April 8, 2020 at 7:37 pm
Throw the CEO in jail for murder. Let the hospital try to talk their way out of the charge.
In democrat states all over the country the governors are telling the hospitals to not issue protective gear to employees and this ceo knows it. So he can either spill the beans or rot in prison.
At valley medical center in Renton washington the hospital is threatening to fire nurses or doctors wearing masks. Several doctors and nurses have gotten the covid from the hospital.
The democrats are working to make this pandemic worse and it has been planned since later February.
But you idoits you just go ahead and vote for these murderous democrats. You loved the Democrat KKK. You love antifa. You love covid deaths.
That is the kind of people democrat voters are.
Marlene M-K
April 8, 2020 at 9:32 pm
Lily….it seems the covid is affecting your brain when you start being political about this nurses death….I’ve been a Democrat for over 50 years and dam sure don’t have anything to do with the KKK or Antifa….you are a crazy person and apparently a Republican….
You started out very sensible…that hospital CEO and whoever was responsible for refusing this nurses request for testing should be brought up on charges…she should be alive and working to aid others…..
The rest of you rant is just that…a rant….
Joe
April 9, 2020 at 12:01 am
Your so right,Lily
Marlene is the perfect example of TDS as is her governor. I’m so sorry you have to live in a state run by idiots. Ordinarily, the only damages they do to you in give you high taxes, spend your money on patronage and do nothing for the African Americans in their localities ( that is why you will see a much larger percent of African Americans die in Detroit of COVID19 than the white population). The governor just doesn’t care. She initially banned the use of hydroxychloroquine, either because President Trump mentioned it and anything the President says is immediately criticized by Democrats, even if everyone knows what he is saying is true. Another possible reason for banning hydroxychloroquine and far more sinister, is that she wants the death rate in your state to rise so she can blame the President. Either way, she demonstrates that she is a classical disturbed idiot.
However,your state has reached the heights of incompetency in her not ordering all hospitals to test their staff for the virus.
The CEO of Ford Mr Lassiter III must be a kindred spirit of your governor and also the perfect exampleof THE PETER PRINCIPLE. How could the idiot refuse to test his own staff?
In addition, all he could say he was saddened by the death of Nurse Ewald and would fight to protect his health workers. How trite. He will be much sadder when he and his hospital will be sued by Ms Ewald’s family which,in the very least,will result in his removal and ,at best,a large settlement for the Ewald family and an indictment for him.
If both the governor and Lassiter III were doing their job, Ms Ewald would be alive today. Ms Ewald should have been tested when she requested and after refusing to test her twice, should have been hospitalized when she was tested after having full blown symptoms,as well as being an asthmatic.
I will pray for you and Marlene. Don’t be angry about her, she into not ,at this time, able to help herself.
In turn, I ask you to pray for me as I live in NY, a state rampant with patronage and incompetence. We have a governor who in 2015 rejected a recommendation to add the purchase of 15,000 ventilators, and wasted the money on failed projects with companies that went bankrupt
( MORE INCOMPETENCE), but one with damaging results.
His incompetency in not preparing for this pandemic, which is the states responsibility, resulted in NY having to be bailed out by President Trump By giving him a 1000 bed hospital ship, had the army corps of engineers build tent hospitals in NYC , provided thousands of ventilators, hundres of thousands of protective items for medical staff, all because Governor Cuomo and the Democratically controlled state legislature weren’t prepared. Also, in NY the African American population will have the highest percentage of deaths fromCOVID19 compared to the white population. Whose fault is this? The answer is obvious. The blame must be shared equally by our stand up comic governor and our sanctuary city mayor DeBlasio, a mayor who can’t even use his real name. He, too, as with many democratically controlled cities,eg Chicago, or as I call it, Dodge City, because of the high number of daily shootings and murders, care little for the African American community as is demonstrated by the health care he provides for them. That is why their COVID19 death rate has a much higher rate than the white population. One of these days African Americans are going to realize, hopefully sooner than later, and this problem will be resolved through the election process. Hopefully, the same thing will happen in your state
Finally,I wonder how many criminal illegals are in Detroit. Mayor Duggin, a white democratic mayor in a predominantly black city is responsible for caring for all his constituents, both white and black. It seems that he is doing a good job with the former, but not with the latter. Hopefully this population will realize what is happening and will go to the ballot box to correct this problem
Keep the faith. This too will pass
SLB42
April 9, 2020 at 2:37 am
Maybe it’s a rant but about the KKK & antifa there is no question about the party of origin—Democrats!
Stephen
April 8, 2020 at 8:18 pm
The story is a bait and switch she was tested after her symptoms got more pronounced but to me that’s not the story in my opinion the story is if you’re a medical professional and you request to be tested you should be tested right away that’s like a soldier on the front line asking for an extra clip or grenade these are the soldiers on the front lines of this pandemic and they should be given every tool in our arsenal. But since she was pretty sure she had the virus I’m not sure if testing would have saved her life or not. that’s the thing with this virus to healthy two people catching it one gets a little sniffle and the other one dies and they don’t know exactly why
Cynthia M
April 9, 2020 at 2:33 am
This is FAKE NEWS!!!!
Whenever you treat or come in contact with a patient who trsts positive with COVID-19 …
The nurses and doctors are tested by the hospital with or without symptoms. Its a 5 minute test between patients.
Its mandatory here in the US.
Not her call or the doctors call for the simple reason not to infect others.
So this story thats being told here …is total BS.
Cheryl Smith
April 9, 2020 at 8:45 am
I am so happy to see that many others are not blinded by the media’s deception. They act like we are to stupid to see through it. The ones that don’t want to see it don’t have enough common sense to wipe there own butts.
Sharon
April 9, 2020 at 11:19 am
This is not right. This woman should have not been working with COVID 19 patients. She is already a high risk person because of her asthma. No Common Sense. The hospital should not be letting nurses with underlining health issues to take care of patient like that.