Lisa Reid from Auckland, New Zealand had become blind when she was 11 years old. She had lost her vision because of a tumor in her head that was pressing her optic nerve.
After 10 years, Lisa could see again and this miracle happened because of a small accident. When Lisa was 24 years old she bent down to kiss her dog Ami goodnight and banged her head on the coffee table.
Without bothering about the bump, Lisa went to bed that night. Next morning when she woke up, she could see again.
“Nobody knows what happened or can explain it,” Reid said. “I kind of lost my balance,” she says. “I hit my head on the floor and coffee table at same time.”
“I can’t really find words to describe how it felt — amazing, fantastic. You can imagine not being able to see and then you can, you can’t really describe that. To see the world again visually is a gift.”
For Lisa her vision returning was a big shock. She could see her family members again. Lisa remembered her brother as a small boy, but he was a young man now.
Her mother had become old than the young mom she had seen long back. “He was a man… with a goatee and everything. My brother’s a man,” Reid said. “When I saw my mum, I was like: ‘You look the same but older.’ I turned into a woman and my brother turned into a man.”
This happened on 15th November 2000. Legally Lisa is still blind. The bump on her head restored only some of her vision. Even with partial vision Lisa said, “It’s amazing.
I don’t think there will ever be any words to describe it. I missed out on seeing myself grow. By the time I got my sight back my brother had grown into a man and I was a woman.”
“It’s the little things. Like the color of the grass, how blue the sky is – the things we all take for granted.”
“Even though physically I couldn’t see there was a whole lot that I could. It comes down to rags and riches; we don’t need all the material rubbish – that’s not what life is about.”
Reid thanks her guide dog for helping her throughout. The dog was provided to her by the Blind Foundation in New Zealand. It provides practical and emotional support for the thousands of Kiwis who are affected by sight loss.
Lisa Reid who is a mother now shares her story as a way to raise awareness for Blind Week in New Zealand.
Doctors were not able to find the exact reason of the recovered vision. They say that there is no medical explanation for this miracle. Laboratory test showed that her right eye has no vision at all and the left eye has only limited vision.
Her optic nerve is still damaged. Due to lack of any explanation some doctors say that the recovered vision may be more psychological rather than physical.
“In a number of patients who lose vision, for reasons we can’t explain, some of those get their vision back mainly due to what we call ‘hysterical blindness,'” explains McKay an ophthalmologist in Auckland.
“But in Lisa’s case, she had quite marked pathology, and therefore, one can’t say that she’s in that category.”
In other words, McKay maintains that Reid’s lost vision was caused by her brain tumor, not some psychological condition. “I don’t believe in miracles,” he says.
