"Without your vision screening program, we probably would not even know that our daughter had a problem."

Currently, only an estimated 14 percent of children receive comprehensive eye examinations before entering kindergarten or first grade.

Shortly before her third birthday, Kaiya received a Prevent Blindness America-certified vision screening at her daycare center. The results of the screening indicated a possible problem with her vision.

Kaiya’s parents decided to return to the doctor, and they were referred to Duke for a second opinion. Dr. Enyedi discovered that her optic nerve was severely malformed and appeared to be a birth defect. Doctors immediately began patching Kaiya’s eye in an attempt to restore vision.

Initially, the patching was very difficult for Kaiya, and she could only handle it for short periods of time, but she soon adapted to the treatment.

“When we first started patching at home,” says Kaiya’s mother, “Kaiya could not see me standing 5 feet away, and she could not see flowers in the garden even though we were bending down right over them.”

“Now, one year later, Kaiya’s eye has been holding consistently at 20/80. Her vision has far exceeded any expectations that the doctors had for her. Without your vision screening program, we probably would not even know that our daughter had a problem. She would only be seeing the world through one eye. I cannot thank Prevent Blindness America enough for helping to save Kaiya’s sight.”