Change of scenery saves a grandmother’s sight from glaucoma

Knowing this, she frequently went for check-ups but found that despite having high eye pressure – a sign of glaucoma risk – her ophthalmologist in Brisbane did not follow it up.

“It was only when I moved to the Gold Coast, and at that point I changed my ophthalmologist, and immediately he said, ‘you’ve got optic nerve damage and you need to be put on drops immediately’,” she said.

“Knowing what I know now, I would have left sooner and got treatment, but I didn’t know.”

Fortunately Professor Tan’s glaucoma was in the early stages, and she has had minimal degradation, but her experience highlights how little can still be done about the insidious disease.

The disease is the leading cause of blindness, with an estimated 75…