Blind in both eyes, but how do they know?

[motyandproudofit]

I have a clinical tomorrow at a home for disabled children. Most are brain dramaged children as a result of a car accident, Shaken Baby or birth defect. One of the diagnosis for the child I will care for states "Blind in both eyes". The child does not talk or move. Completely disabled with trach and g-tube. I am trying to figure out how they know she is blind in both eyes.

The vision tests I am familiar with the patient tells what they can and can't see and what looks better or worse. And with ambulative children you watch for how they walk and if they bump into anything and can find something you ask for. So for the child in the situation stated above, i just don't get it. I tried to google but must not be putting in the right terms to search for.

Thanks for the Help!!

[simply_viki]

I'm no expert, just a student (and a new one at that!) so don't take me completely to heart, but my thinking is that perhaps they used a similar test to something they would use for an infant vision test? I think they just show different things (a website I just looked at from a quick Google search mentions black and white stripes of various degrees of thickness) and see if the child looks at them. I suppose the idea is, if the child doesn't look at them, he/she doesn't see them?

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

They can do scans of the brain and determine if there's brain function in the areas associated with sight while stimulating the child (flashing lights, showing pictures, etc.)

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

they can tell from visual examination of the retina of the eyes. with physical trauma there may have been hemorrhage and/or edema of the brain and it caused injury to the retina and optic nerve. this can be seen by a trained examiner. brain hemorrhaging can result in permanent damage to the vision. anything that injures the retina = visual deficiencies. there is a specialty within ophthalmology that is devoted specifically to problems with the retina. problems with poor oxygen delivery to the brain is also known to result in blindness because the retina does not receive enough nourishment.

[rph3664]

I hope nobody takes this disrespectfully, but my sister has a blind dog and this child's blindness was probably diagnosed in a similar manner to the dog - by shining light into their eyes and watching for a response.

Toby (the dog) was owned by an elderly couple and was blinded when he was hit by a car, and they gave him to an animal sanctuary because they didn't feel they were capable of caring for him. My sister took him home, and sends updates to the sanctuary which they pass on to his former owners.

:anmllvr: