From: "Melvin Lumbardy" 
Subject: Parade article: Why did this child go Blind?
Hello Everyone,
My husbnad alerted me to an article that was in the Sundays PARADE 
magazine that comes with our Sunday paper. It seem there is a study 
going on about whu 600 babies go blind each year from ROP. ROP was 
previousely called retrolental fibroplasia. The man in the article, 
Mr Aleff has a son now aged 12 who was born prematurely and is now 
blind. He says that he believs that his son went blind due to the 
flourescent lights in the intensive care nursery. Also in the article 
were some statements from a DR. who stated that the facts are not 
conclusive on this, and he still goes with the long time thinking 
that babies who are born premature are blind because of the use of 
oxygen. They are now doing a study in several hospitals to see if 
sheilding the babies eyes will prevent ROP.
I was wondering as to how many of you listers  have the condition 
known as ROP or retrolental fibroplasia. I myself do have this, being 
born in 1954. Up until 9 years ago I was able to drive a car and had 
no serious eye problems at the time. The only eye problem I had up 
until that time in 1989 was, the lazy eye,and  extreme nearsightedness. 
My parents were never even told about ROP when I was born. I myself 
did not hear about this until  my eye Dr. told me when I was the age 
of 31. He just said you have ROP.  I did not question him so at that 
time did not get any answers. That same month my eye Dr commited 
suicide so I had no one to turn to. 
For those of you who might want to respond to my letter, I would like 
to know were you blind shortly after birth from ROP or did the 
condition regress only to appear later in life?  I just want to talk 
to someone else who may have this. You may email me privately if you 
don't feel like sharing this with everyone. After many eye operations 
I now have a BIO eye prosthesis in my left eye and am legally blind 
in the left eye with a Snellan acuity of 20/400 or less at times.
I am sure that the NFB has done much to help with various degress of 
vision loss. I have heard that only 8% of blind people can see 
nothing at all. But alternative ways can be learned as I am finding 
out that I must learn for my life in the future years.
Best wishes, Deb Lumbardy at    chief@crown.net
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