BEING THE ONLY Glaucoma specialist in the Eastern Caribbean, and one of three in the entire Caribbean, Dr Dawn Grosvenor plays a pivotal role in treating the chronic disease that damages the nerve of the eye and as a result affects the peripheral vision.
The consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is the chief soldier in a one-man army determined to keep fighting to save as many eyes as she possibly can.
Speaking to the MIDWEEK NATION, Grosvenor, also an ophthalmologist who works at the Regional Eye Care Clinic, Bay Street, St Michael, said that studies had shown that Barbados had to keep a close watch on its glaucoma cases.
She said that eye studies done in the 1980s and 1990s showed that primary open angle glaucoma was the most common in Barbados, along with the fact that Barbados had the highest rate of glaucoma in the world with 7.1 per cent of the over-40 population being affected compared to approximately two per cent in the western world.
“In our population, glaucoma is a big problem and the kind of glaucoma we have is quite difficult to control. Primary open angle glaucoma is the most common type worldwide and also the most common one in Barbados.
“This is the type we call the silent thief of sight because it is painless and you get no symptoms. You don’t realize something is wrong with your eyes until you have it checked. So by the time people notice that their vision is a little blurred or their peripheral vision isn’t quite right, a lot of the vision has already been lost,” said the doctor who recently completed the Glaucoma Fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London with emphasis on surgical management of complex adult glaucoma.
According to Dr Grosvenor, the disease is capable of causing loss of vision which is irreversible. She said that while treatment was possible, it was only effective if the disease was nipped in the bud.
“If people come at a very advanced stage there is only so much we can do. We can still try to control it and try to minimize vision loss or slow it down.”
She explained how glaucoma must be treated.
“The way to treat glaucoma is to lower the eye pressure (lowering the eye pressure stops the damages from occurring which preserves vision which is present) and the easiest way to do that is with eye drops.
“But for some people, the drops don’t work or they work for a while and then the effect wears off and when you get to that point, you need surgery to do what the drops can’t do.
“We always make it clear to people that surgery is not going to bring back vision. And once I have done the operation, your eyes belong to you and it belongs to me. I am going to be monitoring that eye from now on until forever,” said the surgeon who conducts at least two surgeries per week.
The specialist, who is involved in several projects on glaucoma in the region, in addition to her recent publication on Glaucoma in the English-speaking Caribbean, warned that Barbadians should have their eyes checked (Eye pressure check and getting a specialist to look at the nerve at the back of the eye).
“I have patients in their 20s and 30s who are already losing vision as a result of Glaucoma. And if you have a strong history of it, in the next generation it could happen a little earlier,” said the graduate of the University of the West Indies Faculty of Medicine and also an associate lecturer at that institution, in a serious tone.
The doctor completed her ophthalmology training in the United Kingdom, successfully acquiring fellowships in the Royal College of Ophthalmologist of London as well as of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.