Newswise — Surgeons at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago will perform an innovative operation in an attempt to restore the failing eyesight of a 58-year-old cancer survivor. The surgery will take place Dec. 23.
Darold Waldrop, of Kingsford Heights, Ind., suffers from intracranial hypertension and blockage of the drainage system in his neck. His condition is the result of previous surgery and radiation treatment.
Blood that normally drains through the head and neck to the heart has been diverted to his face and eyes. This has caused severe pressure to build up in the optic nerve. Waldrop has lost most of the vision in his right eye and will likely lose sight in his left eye if the problem is not corrected.
In a heartfelt letter to surgeons at UIC, Waldrop explained how he has endured the life-changing consequences of throat cancer. He cannot speak, swallow or eat. If he loses his eyesight, he believes life is not worth living.
"I've been putting up a pretty scrappy battle to stay alive, and keep fighting, for eight years now," Waldrop wrote. "That's pretty good considering that in January 1996, I was given about six months to live."
"But if you agree with me that saving my sight, and letting me keep up this challenge is worthwhile, I'll be grateful forever," he added.
A team of surgeons led by Dr. Fady T. Charbel, professor and head of neurological surgery at UIC, developed a unique surgical approach to repair the drainage system in Waldrop's neck and relieve the pressure in his head.
First, a cardiovascular team will place Waldrop on a heart-lung bypass machine to divert blood away from his head. Then neurosurgeons will use a vein graft to connect his transfer sinus/jugular vein to a subclavian vein, bypassing a spider-web mass of blood vessels in his neck.
"I've never seen a case like this," Charbel said. "A successful vein graft will relieve the pressure in his head, reduce the swelling and blood built up in his neck and keep him from losing sight in his left eye. Ideally, he may also regain vision in his right eye."
Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1995, Waldrop endured weeks of chemotherapy and radiation. The cancer returned one year later and he was given six to nine months to live. He underwent surgery to remove lymph nodes from his neck, part of his tongue and esophagus.
Waldrop credits his 80-year-old mother, Dorothy, with his survival.
"It would have been very easy to give up several different times. She kept me going. She still does," he wrote.
"I wouldn't have had to go through this never ending nightmare if I had never started smoking cigars. I was never a cigarette smoker, but I smoked cigars, off and on, for about 35 years. That's what caused my throat cancer. I tell anyone that will listen, but very few people give a second thought to quitting."
For more information about University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, visit http://www.uillinoismedcenter.org
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.
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