For Fox 29 anchor, mysterious vision loss was symptom of bigger problems
Fox 29 reporter and anchor Chris O'Connell was alarmed to wake up Jan. 12 with blurry vision in his left eye.
Fox 29 reporter and anchor Chris O'Connell was alarmed to wake up Jan. 12 with blurry vision in his left eye.
Nearly two months later, after Wills Eye Hospital physicians figured out what caused the problem, he was glad it happened.
Turned out O'Connell had two undiagnosed heart defects, one of which probably led to a clot that blocked the blood supply to the optic nerve and retina in that eye.
"In the beginning, I thought it was a devastating diagnosis," O'Connell said. "As I learned what exactly happened to me and why it happened, I felt almost like it was a blessing."
O'Connell planned to share his story on the Fox 29 news at 10 p.m. Thursday, to coincide with Stroke Awareness Month. Technically, that is what occurred to him in January - a type of stroke that occurs in the eye.
O'Connell, 46, visited his ophthalmologist in Ridley Park, who saw that blood vessels in the eye were engorged. Within days, the TV journalist was at Wills Eye, where clinicians began weeks of testing to rule out various possible causes.
At first, there was so much swelling that scans did not reveal the blockage, said Robert C. Sergott, chief of neuro-ophthalmology at Wills Eye.
Ordinarily, in a person of O'Connell's age, sudden changes in vision are due to other causes, such as inflammation, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, or Lyme disease, Sergott said.
But then six weeks after the initial episode, O'Connell's vision in the affected eye became even worse. Soon after, further scans enabled physicians to make the stroke diagnosis.
"He had two events separated by six weeks," Sergott said. "That was the tipoff that something unusual was going on. Just because you're young doesn't mean you can't have a stroke."
O'Connell then went to neighboring Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where cardiologists diagnosed the heart defects. They found that one of his heart valves had four leaflets instead of the usual three, and that he had a hole in his heart called a patent foramen ovale. Some sort of abnormal rhythm event apparently led to the clots that damaged his eye, Sergott said.
To guard against future clots and a more serious stroke, O'Connell now takes blood thinners and a daily low-dose aspirin, he said. Jefferson doctors also implanted a cardiac monitor that enables him to transmit data on his heart rhythm to the hospital.
O'Connell's vision in his left eye is permanently impaired, but now physicians are hopeful they can ward off further decline.
"The good lesson here," Sergott said, "is that you don't give up."
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