[DiamondSmiles]

Video may be viewed here:

http://www.knst.com/onair/obi-41276/...h-no-13191928/

By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore
Newser Staff

January 26, 2015

(NEWSER) – When Kelly Lopez gave birth to a baby boy three months ago in Mesa, Arizona, she didn't think much of the fact that her newborn wasn't opening his eyes until hours went by.

By 13 days of age, Richie Lopez had an MRI, and the family was shocked to learn he had no eyeballs beneath those closed lids. Doctors say he does have an optic nerve, giving hope that he might someday see, so for now doctors sutured expanders into his eye sockets to allow them to grow and perhaps eventually hold prosthetic eyes, reports KTV3. Richie has since lost one of the expanders.

"I think we were just in shock," Lopez says. "Obviously very upsetting. The first thought through your mind is, how did this even happen and how was it not even caught?" Lopez says she had a normal pregnancy, and the family has enrolled Richie in programs for blind babies and outfitted him with baby sunglasses.

Another baby was born without eyes last year in Denver, Colorado, and diagnosed with a rare birth defect called Anophthalmia, reports UPI. The Centers for Disease Control describe it as a total absence of eye tissue or apparent absence of the globe. "I do hope that one day that they'll be able to either grow an eye or transplant an eye," Lopez adds.

[pinkshadedgirafe]

How do you let your child go almost two weeks without opening their eyes?

[kellyhound]

poor thing.

[Oswald2001]

"See no evil..."





(I'm gonna go to Hell for that.)

[Blueathena623]

Originally Posted by pinkshadedgirafe ↗

How do you let your child go almost two weeks without opening their eyes?

Right? There are so many new baby checkups the first week alone you think some medical professional would have noted it.

Although I wonder if it was a home birth since newborns usually get drops in their eyes right after birth.

[Pyramid_Head]

That really sucks, I too hope technology allows him to see someday.

[Kelseecat65]

Not to mention they usually note the babies eye color at some point before the baby goes home.
Just strange all around!

[kellyhound]

Contribution to the thread by kellyhound:

bab1.jpg

bab2.jpg

[DiamondSmiles]

Thank you for the additional photos, kellyhound!

So sad!

Idiot parents!

Ray Charles could have seen there was a problem. I'm not sure anything would have changed, but, you never know.

[LadyCPlum]