{"id":286724,"date":"2023-12-28T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T00:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/singapore\/?p=286724"},"modified":"2024-01-02T12:09:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T04:09:25","slug":"blind-in-singapore-gabriel-goh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/singapore\/blind-in-singapore-gabriel-goh\/","title":{"rendered":"New perspectives through lost vision: This local photographer tells us what it\u2019s like losing half of his eyesight"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you first meet Gabriel Goh<\/a>, his confident posture and friendly disposition give you no indication of his ailments. And that\u2019s what it was like for me. After making small talk with the 25-year-old engineering student at an event, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It wasn\u2019t until we had a couple of drinks<\/a> that he very candidly opened up and told me he was blind. Taken aback, I looked at him and wondered for a moment if I was being pranked. He had no cane, no guide dog, and seemed to be navigating the bar just fine. Oh, and that was after I found out he does photography work while studying, which made me wonder how that affected his career. A blind photographer in Singapore? I must have misheard something.<\/p>\n

Having caught the confusion on my face, he laughed. \u201cNo, no. I\u2019m blind in one eye,\u201d he explained. With his group of friends affirming this, I let out an \u201cooooh\u201d of clarity. That\u2019s when confusion turned into inquisitiveness. How often do you meet someone who\u2019s half blind in Singapore? Fuelled by my curiosity, Gabriel kindly humoured me and answered all my questions.<\/p>\n

An innocent accident<\/h3>\n
\"blind
Photography: Gabriel Goh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first thing I wanted to know was how it happened. Was it caused by an autoimmune condition? Was he born with this? Did his vision slowly deteriorate? However, the answer turned out to be more ordinary than I expected. Sometime in his primary school years when he was 10, Gabriel recalls, he spent time with his brother playing with Beyblades \u2013 a line of spinning-top toys. I expressed some excitement because I remembered playing with these toys during my childhood. But it also came with the grim memory of the toy\u2019s sharp edges and metal pieces.<\/p>\n

Gabriel describes how he reached down to grab something from under the table. However, as he moved, his brother ended up accidentally slashing his eye open while playing with the Beyblade. If you winced, don\u2019t worry, I did too. There was no need for other details with a mental image like that. Gabriel says he didn\u2019t think anything was wrong; he didn\u2019t even feel any pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how in Korean dramas, they look down and see blood dripping on the floor? That\u2019s what that moment was like for me,\u201d he describes, chalking it up to a state of shock.<\/p>\n

By the time he arrived at the hospital and saw a doctor in the emergency room, they said his cornea was too torn to save. After getting eight stitches in his eye, Gabriel was warded and kept under observation. However, his stay was anything but comforting. He recalls it being lonely, with no one visiting him except his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that kept me going was when my dad would bring me down to feed the turtles in the pond,\u201d he says with bitter fondness.<\/p>\n

A worsening outlook and an unhelpful cure<\/h3>\n
\"blind
Photography: Gabriel Goh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Time heals all wounds, but it didn\u2019t seem to heal Gabriel\u2019s. Instead, his sight seemed to worsen over time. The scar in his eye blocked most of his usable vision, and he ended up developing a cataract from the injury, which worsened with exposure to light. Salvation came in the form of a doctor who suggested surgery to replace the lens in his eye – a surgery he was told would improve his eyesight tenfold. Despite the price, Gabriel\u2019s parents put together the money, believing they could put this whole incident behind them.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d think we\u2019d end our story here, but unfortunately, things only went downhill. After a traumatising surgery where he was awake and conscious of everything (yes, everything), Gabriel felt a moment of short-lived relief. While his vision wasn\u2019t cloudy anymore, he was now plagued by other complications that began to disorient him and led to greater fatigue, pushing him to get a second opinion. Skipping past the complicated physics of how the eye works, he explains that because his eye wasn\u2019t a perfect sphere anymore, the additional surgery he went through only made things worse.<\/p>\n

Of his desperate attempt to regain his eyesight, Gabriel laments his hasty decision. The pricey procedure only made a marginal improvement in his vision, and after speaking with the second doctor, he discovered more complications. Instead of just having his sight blocked by a scar, it\u2019s now cloudy with the occasional glaring lens flare, similar to how glasses fog up after leaving a very cold bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she had been my consulting doctor to begin with, she wouldn\u2019t have recommended the surgery,\u201d he says, adding that there\u2019s a possibility of the new lens falling off which will lead to permanent vision loss in his right eye.<\/p>\n

The light at the end of the tunnel<\/h3>\n
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A post shared by \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddec | +65 (@13thmessenger)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n