Eye disease can sneak up on the uninformed

As a local cornea, cataract and refractive surgery specialist, Dr. Asim Piracha knows what can happen when people put eye health on the back burner. Earlier this month, he saw a patient who'd basically lost all vision in one eye and who was "starting to lose vision in the other eye, and only then did he come in to be seen," said Piracha, medical director of the John-Kenyon American Eye Institute. "It turns out he has an advanced case of glaucoma," an eye disease that can cause blindness, but had not been treated for it, so "all we can do now is be very aggressive to prevent further (vision) loss," Piracha said. With this condition, "whatever (sight) you lose, you lose. You don't get it back." As Baby Boomers age and the elderly population increases, the country is expected to see more and more people with serious eye... [read full story]