A mother from Arizona was looking at the photos of her 4-month-old baby when she noticed something unusual glowing in her baby's left eye. Hence, she took her baby to a doctor, who told her the child has a cancerous tumor.
Andrea Temarantz said her son, Ryder, was only three months old when she first noticed the glint in his left eye in the camera flash of her cellphone. At first, she thought it's just the camera. However, when she review all of her son's images it showed the same glow in each picture.
By the time Ryder turned 4 months, Andrea took his son to his pediatrician for his monthly check- up where she mentioned about the images. Thus, the doctor referred her to an eye specialist.
On the morning of Jan. 5, the worried mother took her son to an ophthalmologist where Ryder was diagnosed with retinoblastoma in his left eye. After the initial diagnosis, Andrea and her husband took Ryder to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for a second opinion.
After checking Ryder's eyes, Dr. David H. Abramson, chief of the Ophthalmic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering told the mother that they are lucky as they detected the tumor early and it has not spread to other critical organs yet.
Thus, Dr. Abramson recommended that the boy should undergo three to six rounds of ophthalmic artery chemosurgery. The doctor explained to the mom that the procedure is a better option compared to regular chemotherapy. Likewise, Ryder will have a 99% recovery and still have the same vision in his left eye.
The mother is now hoping that her story will encourage other parents to always pay attention to their children. She never thought that the glint in the images is a clear indication that her son is suffering from cancer.
"We just hope for people to see how easy it would be to recognize this," Temarantz told Daily News. "My husband has always thought I was 'crazy picture mom,' but look at us now. So early detection is the main thing."
