Chloe Cooper has just returned from a family holiday in Rhodes, Greece. But while her relatives played by the pool and strolled through sunlit villages, she was forced to hide away in the shade. For the past ten months, since suddenly losing her sight, even the faintest exposure to sunlight has left her in agonising pain.
Cooper, 29, was admitted to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford last year to undergo a “routine” operation to remove cataracts from her eyes, but after an initial two-week period of experiencing “near-perfect eyesight”, she lost her vision and has not regained it since.
Although temporary blindness can be part of the normal healing process or a treatable complication of cataract surgery, permanent blindness is rare and occurs in less than 1 in 1,000 people.
Her father, Simon Cooper, explained that his daughter — whom he describes as “extremely independent” despite living with Down’s syndrome — had been forced to sit in dark rooms every day since the procedure in September as the family waited for treatment to correct the blindness.
Cooper with Csilla and Simon Cooper, her parents
BEN STEVENS FOR THE TIMES
Despite referrals to numerous clinics, apparently the family have not yet been able to get critical immunosuppression treatment that could offer her a treatment pathway to resolve the pain and loss of vision.
“Her mental health is being seriously affected and we don’t understand why there [does not appear to be any] urgency to restore her sight,” he said. “We feel as though … the case hasn’t been taken as seriously because she has Down’s syndrome.”
The family claim they were initially told by medical staff that the vision loss would be “100 per cent treatable” after the operation, but allege they have been told this is not true by doctors and “shouldn’t have been said to us at all. That was a horrendous thing to be told.”
The family are now waiting to see if they can get immunosuppression treatment at the University of Southampton after securing a referral.
Csilla, Cooper’s mother, said: “This only happened because the parents are fighting; if no one was fighting the hospital’s patients would be left to suffer.”
Csilla Cooper
BEN STEVENS FOR THE TIMES
Sitting in a dimly lit room at home in West Sussex, Cooper said “I want my life back … I’ve lost my life” when asked about her condition, which leaves her in pain for several hours a day.
Cooper explained that his daughter was previously able to cook, take part in physical activities and would often make teas for her carers. “We just want her to be able to return to that. She was so independent and resilient. We just want her to return to normal.”
Bill Jewsbury, the medical director at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, said: “Chloe has a complex health condition affecting her eye health, for which we have provided ongoing care including surgery, regular follow-up appointments and referrals to specialist hospitals.
“We acknowledge the concerns raised by Chloe’s family and have met with them to discuss these, as well as the next steps in her treatment.
“We plan to review her care, taking into account the outcome of the referral to the specialist centre, to ensure it has met the highest standards and to identify any opportunities for learning within our teams.”
