Eye-cancer found with cell phone

frost

Baby boy's eye cancer spotted after he is snapped with mother's camera phone



This is the family picture that may have saved the sight of an eight-month-old boy.

Thomas Hale has a rare form of cancer, which was diagnosed after his mother took a picture of him on her new camera phone.

The glare from the camera revealed light sensitive cells in the youngster's eye which could not be seen in face-to-face contact.

His mother Elizabeth, 32, said: 'To look at him before you would never have seen anything was wrong. His vision was fine and he was just like any other happy, smiling eight-month-old.

'On March 4, I got a new camera phone and was playing around and taking photographs of the children.

'The first picture of Thomas looked unusual so I took a few more and his eyes on them all looked different.'

After speaking to her sister who is a nurse, Elizabeth and her husband Neil took him to their GP who referred Thomas to Consultant Ophthalmologist Antonio Aguirre at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Mr Aguirre confirmed Thomas had the rare form of eye cancer retinoblastoma, which affects 50 children under the age of five each year.

Thomas has four tumours, one in his left eye which reflects back on the camera while the other three are in his right eye.

Since the diagnosis the family have to travel to Birmingham Children's Hospital every three weeks for laser treatment and to St James's Hospital in Leeds where Thomas has chemotherapy.

The youngster has responded well to treatment and takes it in his stride. He will have check ups every three weeks until he is five.

Mr Aguirre will soon give Thomas' big sister Beth, four, a check to make sure she is clear, although she is showing no signs.

The couple are now highlighting the rare condition and said they were lucky to get a diagnosis from Mr Aguirre within days at HRI.

Elizabeth said: 'Many people would take the photograph and just think it was a problem with the camera, especially if it's a phone camera.

'I do think "what if I hadn't got a new phone". Without that first photograph who knows how long it would have been until we found out.

'It has been a bit of a whirlwind since the diagnosis. Mr Aguirre was fantastic with us and because it is so rare he is checking on Beth too.

'It was a big shock but we feel very lucky that we noticed it early.'

Retinoblastoma affects around 50 children every year and 95 per cent will survive after treatment. It is best treated if caught early.

Signs include a cat's eye reflection in photographs, or a black eye on flash photographs, a squint or a cloudy eye.

Namir

Aw. I wish him all the best and hope he gets through it!

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frost

Honestly, that mom is pretty badass. I would have seen that picture, chocked it up to glare and forgotten about it.

cow

Ain't technology grand?

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