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Brooklyn Skyline
Volume 8, Issue No. 51
December 19, 2000
Area 1
Back from Blindness
Miracle Surgery Saves Bensonhurst Boy's Sight
By Marie Elena Giossi
Ann and Jeff Holcomb had the American dream, a perfect nuclear family with two healthy and happy children: a bright little boy and a beautiful baby girl.
But this dream was shattered the day their son Brian failed a simple eye exam in kindergarten. Thinking Brain probably needed glasses, Ann took him to an eye doctor. Brian was diagnosed with congenital hereditary endothelia dystrophy (CHED). Though it's a hereditary condition, no one in either family had CHED.
"The doctors said we had a better chance of winning the lottery," Ann said.
 CHED is a condition in which the fluid within the eye doesn 't drain properly. In many cases, it leads to permanent blindness. All of the doctors said Brian would eventually go blind. And the same fate was predicted for his little sister Erin who was also discovered to suffer from this disease.
Ann compared the experience to finding out that a loved one has cancer. It happened so suddenly and there seemed to be very little chance for the outcome they hoped to achieve. The very first cornea specialist wanted to immediately perform four surgeries that had a chance of being 65 percent successful, if even. But 65 percent wasn't good enough.
The Holcombs decided to keep bringing Brian to doctors until they heard what they wanted to hear - that their child wouldn't lose his sight.
Eight doctors later, the Holcomb family met Dr. Judy Gurland, who is affiliated with Montefiore Medical Center. "She was a godsend," according to Ann Gurland taught the family to live in the moment and take each day as it came. For the moment, Brain, now 6, and Erin, 18 months, were still functioning, albeit in their own ways.
Brain continued in school and did well. He was getting 85's and 90's in all of his classes with his parents' help. They would enlarge Brian's assignments on the computer so he could see them.
To get an idea of how large the words had to be on the computer screen, imagine the text you're reading magnified six times.
Even then, if you were Brian or Erin, you'd have to put your nose to the screen in order to read it.
The siblings carried on in this way until Brian started getting blisters in the underside of his eyelids. Gurland controlled the blisters with medicine for as long as possible. Then, one morning when Brian was in eighth grade, he woke up to go to school and the blisters had ruptured. "That day was just so painful," Brian remembered.
Brain had lost his corneas. Gurland tested his eyes with a special instrument that goes right into the cornea to check for any living cells. Brain had none. But the real shock to the family came when Erin was tested and her eyes produced the same result. Five years younger than Brian, the disease had progresses just as fast in her eyes.
Gurland recommended the Holcombs to Dr. Mark Speaker, a leading corneal and laser vision corrective surgeon. The first time they went to see him, Speaker told Brian that he would fix his eyes. And from that point on, Brian had hope. "I knew he was going to do it, no questions asked." Brian said.
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