success stories - strabismus
Joey Kelly
Now has 100% Depth Perception!
Our son Joey is 11 years old. This year in baseball he was not having much success. He often misjudged a fly ball. During one game a ball was hit long and Joey ran forward. He completely misjudged it, resulting in a homerun for the other team. His coach suggested it was time we have Joey’s eyes examined. We took him to our local optometrist in Chesterton, Indiana, Dr. Julie Dabkowski. She pointed out that Joey had 20/20 eyesight, but had poor depth perception because his eyes didn’t team properly. She recommended that we bring Joey to Dr. Fortenbacher in St. Joseph, Michigan. Dr. Fortenbacher did an extensive examination and identified Joey with a condition known as strabismus. Even though we are both teachers we were not familiar with this term. In simple language, Joey’s two eyes failed to work together and he suppressed his right eye. As a result he had no depth perception. While Joey is very athletic and strives to be successful, we were more concerned with his safety when he got older and began to drive a car. Dr. Fortenbacher explained vision therapy to us and as educators, it made perfect sense. Joey got started in his vision therapy program and began responding right away. His vision therapist, Denise, was instrumental to his success. Joey was initially diagnosed with a condition that would normally have taken 50 hours of vision therapy, but here we are in October, at the exit exam. Due to the individualized therapy and commitment of all involved, Joey has complete binocular vision with 100% depth perception and no longer suppresses his eye in only 25 hours of therapy! It is a credit to WoW Vision therapy that a child completes therapy early. We are ecstatic that our son is now able to view the world in all dimensions. Also, we have learned that 20/20 vision does not mean that a child is “seeing” properly. As teachers, we are now recognizing and referring more children who are struggling with reading to doctors as a result of our son’s vision problems. Thank you to all of the staff at WoW Vision Therapy Centers for being so accommodating to us. Especially, thank you to Dr. Fortenbacher and Denise for working so closely with us. Denise has a special place in our hearts for all that she has done for Joey. We strongly recommend WoW Vision Therapy! It was a positive experience for our family with a successful outcome.
~Ann and Bill Kelly (parents)
