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A girl had to undergo surgery to remove her right eye after being diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare cancer.
Gracie Corrigan, a native of Oregon, had 10 tumors in the eye and the doctors decided to proceed with an operation the day after their discovery.
Her mother, Elly Smith, first noticed that something was wrong when she took a picture of her daughter and the flash made her look strange.
Since her eye was removed, she was given a painted denture to match the last one, which Mrs. Smith, 38, says Gracie followed closely.
In a photo that Mrs. Smith took of her five-year-old daughter in 2016, we can see Gracie Corrigan's right eye shining abnormally because of the flash – it's a typical sign of retinoblastoma.
Gracie (left) had to undergo surgery to remove the right eye after the doctors had discovered that she had 10 cancerous tumors caused by retinoblastoma. She now has a painted prosthetic eye (right picture)
"She even had the eye of relief to show and tell," Ms. Smith said. "She has such a spirit – she has helped our family through this.
Mrs. Smith began to worry about her daughter's eye when he looked unusual in the photos.
She took Gracie to a doctor and was referred to ophthalmologists who diagnosed cancer and acted quickly.
Ms. Smith said, "I knew something was wrong with Gracie because her eye would be glowing and it seemed like she had lazy eye.
"I gave him an appointment the day I noticed him and his doctor referred us to an ophthalmologist.
"I could tell that something was wrong over there and I noticed that the doctor's chest was turning red – I was just asking what was wrong.
"When we learned, we tried to explain as best we could to a two-year-old girl and we said that her eye had an" owee "and that the doctor had to take it out."
Retinoblastoma is a rare form of eye cancer that usually affects children under five years old.
According to the figures, about 300 children in the United States develop each year alongside 50 others in the United Kingdom.
It causes sensitive eye changes and is therefore often detected early – about 98% of children with the disease are treated successfully.
Gracie 's mother, Elly Smith, 38, first noticed that something was wrong when she took a picture of her daughter with the flash activated and that one of her eyes was glowing.
Retinoblastoma has been diagnosed in Gracie, a rare type of cancer that develops in the eye and usually affects children under five years of age.
The doctors discovered that Grace had 10 cancerous tumors to the eyes and optic nerve and decided to intervene the next day to eliminate the growths.
Mrs. Smith noticed a white light at her daughter's pupil when she took pictures of Gracie, then two years old, in May 2016.
Leucocoria, a medical term for an abnormal white reflection in the pupil, is often one of the first signs of retinoblastoma.
When a doctor explained that Gracie had cancer, Ms. Smith said that she did not know what to do.
"I just started crying," she said. "When we left, I remember walking towards the car crying and shaking and tying Gracie in the car seat without knowing what I was going to do.
"I told Gracie" Whatever happens, it'll be okay "."
The mother and daughter flew more than 2,000 km (4,000 km) to the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, where doctors have listed 10 tumors in the eye and Gracie's optic nerve.
They explained that she would need to have the eye removed the next day.
Mrs. Smith said, "I was messy. we [went] for a second opinion, but I did not expect her to need her eye the next morning.
Her husband Sean Corrigan flew to join them that night and Gracie's eye was removed on June 1, 2016.
Surgeons operated just 16 days after his mother first noticed the white flash of Gracie's eye. She started chemotherapy two weeks later.
"The first two months have been very hard for her," said Ms. Smith. & # 39; She was nauseous and had [nerve damage] sore feet of chemo.
Three months after removing her eye, Gracie received her prosthetic eye.
Gracie has been "resilient" since she had to adapt to life with her prosthetic eye, said her mother. Nearly three years have passed since the surgery
Gracie (photographed with her mother shortly after her surgery) now takes her prosthetic eye to school and tells her stories and tells her friends her "magical eye," her mother said.
Gracie had to undergo chemotherapy after her operation, but she has recovered completely since then. She still has health checks every three months, but she has remained in a vacuum.
Ms. Smith said, "The ocularist painted the eye during our stay and we returned the next day to retrieve it.
"It was so moving for me, I think I cried for the next 24 hours!"
Gracie 's quickly adapted to his new eye and recovered completely. She is still under close supervision and undergoes tests every three months, but has not encountered any problems so far.
Now she lives without restriction, plays with other children her age and tells everyone about her "magic eye," her mother said.
"Gracie agreed with that," says Mrs. Smith about her daughter's new eye. "She is so resilient.
"When they do the eye, you have to choose something to put on top so you know which is the top of the eye – Gracie chose a horse.
"It was a hard day for me. Gracie wore an eye patch since the abduction and seeing the eye of the prosthesis made it real.
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