- Angelina's Story
- Diane's Story
- Elizabeth's Story
- Joe and Shirley's Story
- Maddie's Story
- Melissa's Story
Like most mothers, Kesala Morrell checked her newborn over from head to toe. "From the very beginning, I felt like something with her eyes was not quite right," she said. "And if you feel like something is not right with your child, you have to check it out."
Kesala kept a close watch on Angelina's eyes. "Sometimes her eyes would cross, especially when she was tired. But I learned that wasn't uncommon in babies. When I took her for a check up at nine months, I pursued it with our physician, and he referred us to Dr. Quinn, ophthalmologist, at the Winona Health Eye Care Center."
For young children, part of the vision assessment is observation of their behavior," Dr. Quinn explained. "Beyond that, there are various ways to assess whether a child ‘prefers' the vision in one eye over the other. We also can look for predisposing risk factors for why a child might prefer the vision in one eye over the other."
In Angelina's case, her very observant mother noticed a tendency for eye misalignment.
"Angelina's eyes cross occasionally-probably a sign of amblyopia," said Dr. Quinn. "She is significantly more hyperopic (far-sighted) in one eye than the other, which puts her at risk for amblyopia, and crossing can occur secondary to that."
According to Dr. Quinn, amblyopia is a situation where the brain does not develop good vision in an eye. Possible risk factors include: eye misalignment (crossing), in which case the brain "turns off" development of vision in one eye to avoid double vision; or unequal refractive error in which case the brain may "ignore" the eye with the more out-of-focus image.
"To measure refractive error (requirement for glasses) in young children, I use lenses to neutralize the focusing power of the child's eye," Dr. Quinn said. "For Angelina, I prescribed glasses to give each of her eyes good focus, thereby removing the advantage that one eye had over the other. This will allow her brain a better opportunity to develop good vision in both eyes and a better ability for her eyes to work together to provide the best vision."
Kesala said that Angelina is adjusting well to wearing glasses. "You just want the best for your children," she said. "We really appreciate the TLC Dr. Quinn has given us from the first appointment. She just has a wonderful manner, and I can tell she really cares."
Click here to learn more about Dr. Quinn.
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To schedule an appointment, contact:
Winona Health Eye Care Center
859 Mankato Ave., Suite 330
Winona, MN 55987
(Third floor of the new Outpatient Clinic on the Winona Health campus.)