Front Page Story - Union Leader, Manchester, NH features VRT success story of Merrimack Vision Care patient
01/15/2008
Seeing is believing
Take five minutes to talk with Thomas Blair, and you'll figure out he's got a pretty positive outlook on life. But the resolve of even the most optimistic would be tested by what the 66-year-old former airline pilot from Hampton went through.
In the past 18 months, he has had a kidney removed, undergone open heart surgery and suffered a stroke. The worst of it all was the loss of vision he suffered as a result of the stroke. He had to stop coaching the freshmen baseball team at Winnacunnet High School, couldn't read and was no longer able to drive.
"My poor wife had to drive me everywhere," Blair said. "You lose your mobility; you're dependent on everyone."
Now he has nearly 20-20 vision in both eyes after being one of the first patients from New Hampshire to go through Vision Restoration Therapy, a treatment for neurological vision loss that has been hailed as a medical breakthrough.
"This is the first medical device to restore vision," Dr. Kevin Chauvette said. "It's been eye-opening for me."
Chauvette is the owner of Merrimack Vision Care and the first private practice center to offer VRT. He said Blair is one of a dozen of his patients who have gone through the treatment since he began offering it a year ago; 80 percent have had what Chauvette terms success.
In the past 18 months, he has had a kidney removed, undergone open heart surgery and suffered a stroke. The worst of it all was the loss of vision he suffered as a result of the stroke. He had to stop coaching the freshmen baseball team at Winnacunnet High School, couldn't read and was no longer able to drive.
"My poor wife had to drive me everywhere," Blair said. "You lose your mobility; you're dependent on everyone."
Now he has nearly 20-20 vision in both eyes after being one of the first patients from New Hampshire to go through Vision Restoration Therapy, a treatment for neurological vision loss that has been hailed as a medical breakthrough.
"This is the first medical device to restore vision," Dr. Kevin Chauvette said. "It's been eye-opening for me."
Chauvette is the owner of Merrimack Vision Care and the first private practice center to offer VRT. He said Blair is one of a dozen of his patients who have gone through the treatment since he began offering it a year ago; 80 percent have had what Chauvette terms success.
For Blair, it means being able to drive again, to read again and to coach baseball again.
"It feels like someone is giving my life back a little piece at a time," Blair said.
VRT was developed by Nova Vision Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., and approved by the FDA in 2003. More than 1,000 patients who have suffered vision disturbance from a stroke or brain trauma have been treated. Chauvette said Medicare or most other health insurance providers don't cover the treatment, which is around $6,000.
Chauvette admits he was skeptical when he first heard of the treatment. Then he delved deeper and decided it was a new way to help people who have lost normal vision through strokes or brain trauma.
Nearly 700,000 people in the country suffer a stroke every year, and roughly 150,000 have visual disturbance. Chauvette said more than 2 million people in the country have visual disturbance due to a stroke or brain trauma.
VRT is light stimulation that Chauvette says helps strengthen damaged neurons in the brain that control vision. Patients are provided with a laptop computer equipped with a program that requires them to follow a series of lighted objects that pop up. After certain intervals, the results are sent through a modem in the computer to the Nova Vision headquarters and the program is adjusted.
Chauvette said a typical treatment is twice a day for 30 minutes, six days a week for six months.
"It feels like someone is giving my life back a little piece at a time," Blair said.
VRT was developed by Nova Vision Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., and approved by the FDA in 2003. More than 1,000 patients who have suffered vision disturbance from a stroke or brain trauma have been treated. Chauvette said Medicare or most other health insurance providers don't cover the treatment, which is around $6,000.
Chauvette admits he was skeptical when he first heard of the treatment. Then he delved deeper and decided it was a new way to help people who have lost normal vision through strokes or brain trauma.
Nearly 700,000 people in the country suffer a stroke every year, and roughly 150,000 have visual disturbance. Chauvette said more than 2 million people in the country have visual disturbance due to a stroke or brain trauma.
VRT is light stimulation that Chauvette says helps strengthen damaged neurons in the brain that control vision. Patients are provided with a laptop computer equipped with a program that requires them to follow a series of lighted objects that pop up. After certain intervals, the results are sent through a modem in the computer to the Nova Vision headquarters and the program is adjusted.
Chauvette said a typical treatment is twice a day for 30 minutes, six days a week for six months.
Blair had blind spots at the top and bottom of his eyes before VRT.
"It stopped him in his tracks," Donna Blair said of her husband's ordeal. "And the (loss of) vision was terrible. It was tough to see him like that."
The field the Winnacunnet baseball teams play on is named after Blair, a sign of appreciation for the money, labor and materials he helped raise to renovate it.
Now he'll be back on it this spring helping coach the Warriors.
"It stopped him in his tracks," Donna Blair said of her husband's ordeal. "And the (loss of) vision was terrible. It was tough to see him like that."
The field the Winnacunnet baseball teams play on is named after Blair, a sign of appreciation for the money, labor and materials he helped raise to renovate it.
Now he'll be back on it this spring helping coach the Warriors.