Interesting celebrity eye problems

In the celebrity world who has lost their sight to Glaucoma? Which rockstar is sporting a 'bionic eye'? What is a retinal detachment; and which celebrities have had eye related injuries on the set of movies?

Every day we are bombarded with gossip about celebrities in magazines, but here at Gerry & Johnson Optometrists we are only interested in celebrities with eye problems and how they have strived to deal with such issues. Stevie Wonder, who has been blind since shortly after birth, is an American singer-songwriter and activist as famous for his music as he is about his lack of vision. Wonder’s blindness is a result of his premature birth - the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not properly developed, causing his retinas to detach. The medical term for this condition is retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, and while it may have been exacerbated by the oxygen pumped into his incubator, this was not the primary cause of his blindness. 

Another interesting celebrity case is lead singer of British Rock band Radiohead, Thom Yorke. Thom spoke up about his condition in an interview,

“When I was born my left eye was completely paralysed. My eyelid was permanently shut and they thought it would be like that for the rest of my life. Then some specialist bloke realised he could graft a muscle in, like a bionic eye. So I had 5 major operations between the age of nought to 6. They messed up the last one and I went half blind. I can kind of see, I can judge when I hit something but that’s about it.”

Ray Charles' story is quite inspirational as his blindness never stopped him from learning to ride a bike, play cards, use stairs or even fly an airplane. Ray Charles  merely used other senses; he judged distance by sound, and learned to sharpen his memory. He lost his sight at the age of five not long after witnessing his brother’s drowning. However medical experts agree that glaucoma was the culprit, not trauma. According to Glaucoma Australia, glaucoma is the ’Sneak thief of sight’ and is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Glaucoma is part of a group of eye diseases in which the optic nerve at the back of the eye is slowly destroyed. In most people this damage is due to an increased pressure inside the eye - a result of blockage of the circulation of aqueous, or its drainage. In other patients the damage may be caused by poor blood supply to the vital optic nerve fibres, a weakness in the structure of the nerve, and/or a problem in the health of the nerve fibres themselves.

After a mishap on-set, Shia LaBeouf was quoted discussing the gruesome eye injury he received while filming the Transformers sequel. LaBeouf impaled his face on a spike, leading to heavy bleeding, but there was fortunately no permanent damage. LaBeouf isn’t the only celebrity who’s received an eye injury on-set – in 2006, Teri Hatcher was injured while filming Desperate Housewives after a light bulb exploded. As a result of the explosion, Hatcher had glass shards lodged in her eye and a scratched cornea, but recovered shortly thereafter.

Other injured celebrities on-set include Halle Berry, who got smoke grenade shards in her eye filming Die Another Day, and Daniel Craig, who suffered from a bruised eye filming Casino Royale. Finally, some celebrities have received attention for undergoing laser eye surgery – Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Tiger Woods, to name a few. As this procedure becomes more and more commonplace, there will no doubt be increasing numbers of celebrities seeking treatment to correct their visual problems once and for all.

Gerry & Johnson Optometrists definitely don't like to focus on negative eye issues, as we strive to give everyone the vision to achieve their best! However, we do like to educate our patients about how the eye works and what issues may arise. If you ever have any questions about your eyes, no matter how menial we are happy to give you advice and answer your questions. Our optometrists Kate, Courtenay and Marissa are always happy to answer technical questions and our optical dispensers Katie, Anna, Leah and Elle will be happy to answer questions about contact lenses, optical lenses, specialised sunglasses and other vision correction options. We look forward to hearing from you :)