Luis Garcia has lost practically all vision of his left eye, where he has 0.1% visual acuity, and 60% of the right. At 76 years old he began to see poorly, he believed they were his glasses, so he decided to go to an optician, where they graduated his vision and gave him new ones. His problems continued, and he went to the doctor, believing that perhaps it was cataracts. Neither. “It was an odyssey to find my diagnosis.” Luis became desperate, time passed and he “saw worse and worse.”
He had to wait months for his next social security appointment. The average in Spain for an Ophthalmology consultation is 83 days. It is the second specialty with the longest waiting list in our country. He decided to go to private healthcare to try to speed up the process and find out what was happening to him. “Wet” macular degenerationThey were diagnosed.
It is an eye disease that causes blurred vision or a blind spot in central vision. It is usually caused by blood vessels leaking fluid or blood into the macula (part of the retina that makes vision clear). It affects the quality of life of patients, they often need caregivers, and they cannot carry out daily activities. Luis, for example, can’t wait to use his cell phone, he needs a magnifying glass to read it.
There are several treatments They can help the disease progress more slowly and preserve existing vision. One of the handicaps of these is that generally Patients must go to the hospital once a month to receive it, as is the case of Luis. “In some hospitals they do not comply with the injection schedule due to the massification of patients they have,” Luis complains.
During the pandemic this decline exploded. “It was an absolute disaster, “Some hospitals couldn’t follow the schedule and they injected you only for a few months.”. Luis indicates that not following the guidelines has its risks: “If you stop the treatment you can go blind“.