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Better Eyesight
A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Prevention and Cure of Imperfect
Sight Without Glasses
Copyright, 1921, by the Central Fixation Publishing Company
Editor, W. H. Bates, M. D.
Publisher, Central Fixation Publishing Company
Vol. VIII. - July, 1923 - No. 1
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Stories from the Clinic
By Emily C. Lierman
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Sarah
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A few years ago there came to our clinic at the Harlem Hospital a
curly-headed girl named Sarah, aged twelve years. As she stood among
patients who were waiting for treatment, I noticed how pretty she
was. She was standing sideways with her right side toward me, and as
I did not see her enter the room, I received a shock when I discovered
that the left side of her face was distorted. I pretended not to
notice anything wrong with her, because she seemed very sensitive.
However, her left eye appeared ready to pop out of its socket any
moment, and both upper and lower eyelids were terribly inflamed. Dr.
Bates explained the history of her case, and also the cause of her
affliction, and then left her entirely in my care. She told me that
at the age of four she became ill with cerebrospinal meningitis, and
all of the left side of her body became paralyzed. Until she came to
us she had been receiving treatment from nerve specialists, both in
England, where she was born, and also in New York. Electric
treatments were given without success. Money was not spared and all
of her family sacrificed every penny for Sarah's medical treatment to
bring about a cure. When one doctor failed, another was recommended
by their friends. Finally, the bank account dwindled to scarcely
nothing, and Sarah stopped treatment, believing that she could never
be cured. Later, as I learned to know her better, I noticed that she
was ever conscious of her trouble and would always turn the good side
of her face toward me. There was one thing good about Sarah she was
never downhearted, or she never revealed it to me, if she was. She
was a good scholar at school, and graduated at the age of 14 from the
public school.
I tested her sight and she had normal vision, 10/10, in her right
eye, and 10/50 with the left. I placed her in a comfortable position
and showed her how to palm and told her not to remove her hands from
her eyes while I was testing the sight of other patients. After a few
moments I noticed while Sarah had her eyes covered that her face
became terribly red and I wondered if she were comfortable or not. I
spoke to her and she complained that she did not like to palm, that it
made her nervous. I thought that she was not doing it right and
explained to her again how easy it was to cover her eyes with the
palms of her hands to obtain the relaxation which was necessary to
improve the vision of her left eye. She very faithfully tried again
but I noticed that she was getting more uncomfortable all the time.
Her vision did not improve at all by the method of palming so I tried
her with the long swing which proved successful. I thought in time
that Sarah would feel friendly toward the method of palming and that
she would improve faster in that way but I was mistaken.
For two years Sarah came to us at the clinic quite regularly and
in all that time I could not induce her to palm. She complained that
it made her nervous. This was my first experience in all the years
that I have been assisting Dr. Bates in that the patient could not be
made comfortable by palming. The long swing was very helpful to her,
holding her left forefinger in front of her or to the left side of her
face, about six inches from her eyes and then slowly moving her head
from shoulder to shoulder, blinking all the while she was doing this.
At the first visit the vision of her left eye had improved to 10/30.
Sarah was encouraged to do this long swing as many times during the
day as it was possible for her to do it and she was reminded to blink
her eyes very often, which she was not able to do at all with her left
eye at the first visit. The upper lid of her left eye seemed
stationary and she could not close this eye in sleep which gave her a
strange appearance. As I never had a case like hers before, I was
deeply interested and studied hard to find every possible way to help
her. She was a dear bright little girl and was so willing to do
everything that we wished her to do, to help in the cure of her eye.
I asked Dr. Bates for permission to try helping her improve the
condition of her left cheek and mouth, as well as her eye as I thought
that our method of relaxation might possibly do something for her
face. Doctor smiled his usual smile and said, "Well you might try."
On her second visit to the clinic her left vision had improved to
10/15 which was most encouraging to me. She told me that she had
tried to palm at home just to please me, but every time she tried this
it bothered her, but the long swing helped a lot. As time went on I
told her to shorten the swing and move her head slowly from side to
side, seeing things move opposite from the way her head was moving and
this also gave her a great deal of benefit. Before she had been
coming to us a month I noticed that the upper lid of her left eye was
beginning to move and the inflammation which caused Sarah so much
discomfort had almost entirely disappeared. Her vision stayed about
the same, left 10/15, right 10/10. Always when she came, we went
through the usual treatment of seeing things move opposite as she held
her left forefinger to the left side or in front of her face. I sat
before her, doing the treatment with her to encourage her to keep it
up. During a period of eight weeks of this treatment her facial
expression began to change for the better. It was more noticeable
when she smiled. When I first saw her smile I noticed that her mouth
would turn way over to the right side of her face.
(To be continued)
Owing to the unusual nature of this case, and of the remarkable
results obtained, Mrs. Lierman is going to tell of it in detail,
therefore in will be continued in the August number.
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