Victoria Asoyan, 1.5 y/o
Victoria was a very expected child in the family. That was the first pregnancy and the first child for her mother, Emma, after ten years of expectations and anxiety. The entire period of pregnancy was very hard and with many complications. Victoria was born through Cesarean section and was shortly diagnosed with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). Apart from the vision problems, the child had lung problems as well.
Our mission is eliminating
preventable blindness and
making eye care accessible to
all people in Armenia.
We have met Victoria’s father, Robert, who shared the emotional experience of their family for that particular period: “This is our first baby. Since we got married, we wanted a child very much, but all our efforts were unsuccessful. During ten years, our great love and faith helped us keep our family and hope that someday we would have a child. At last, after numerous consultations and treatments, Emma got pregnant and our daughter Victoria was born. Due to several circumstances, our daughter was born prematurely. She was very weak. These were really hard times both for Emma and our daughter. We named our daughter Victoria just for her will of overcoming with victory all the hardships with her health.”
The ROP screening for Victoria was arranged by Dr. Nune Yerkanyan. The laser procedure was performed by Dr. Tadevos Hovhannisyan. Both of the eyes were saved from retinal detachment and blindness.
The AECP ROP program envisions weekly visits to all neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in Yerevan which could have premature infants. The AECP trained screeners arrive to the NICU with a retinal camera (RetCam) and indirect ophthalmoscope to perform screenings. A laser treatment is arranged, if identified necessary. Many parents, who cannot afford a treatment abroad, now may benefit from the program.
We have asked Victoria’s father about the impressions of the procedures they got acquainted with during the screenings and treatment. “The NICU associate informed me about the problem. He told me that ROP was found after eye screenings, and my child needed treatment. Actually, I knew that there were such eye screenings being performed here” Robert said “My daughter was already at the NICU when the doctors of your organization visited us. Victoria was too small and needed to grow up a bit to be able to undergo eye screenings. As I was often visiting my child, I had the chance to meet regularly the parents of the children being already treated. The good results and opinions from other parents helped me stay confident when giving my consent for Victoria’s treatment.”
We met once again the Asoyans family at the Malayan Eye Center during one of their regular visits for eye checkups. Victoria was doing very well and reached her normal weight already. In response to our follow up enquiry Robert said “Now, when I see the success, I can only say that good professionals have worked with my daughter, and the words are not sufficient to express my gratitude to your organization.”