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In his recently published autobiography, brain cancer survivor Don Evans recounts how, as a teenager, he spent years trying to identify the health problem that many believed was psychosomatic and then struggled to overcome the post-surgical paralysis that doctors predicted would leave him permanently debilitated.
 
“It’s about hoping and dreaming and never giving up,” Evans says of the book.
 
It also holds a moral for optometrists and for other health care professionals, according to Carl Golightly, O.D., who performed the eye examination that ultimately uncovered Evans’ brain tumor.

 “Optometrists really are on the frontlines of health care,” Dr. Golightly said.
 
Back in the mid-1970s, as he entered his teen years in his hometown of Michigan City, Ind., Evans began suffering excruciating headaches and severe nausea.
 
With his parents, Evans spent almost two years consulting physicians across northwestern Indiana and undergoing numerous tests in an unsuccessful effort to find the cause.
 
Friends and family began to believe Evans was “imagining” the problem.
 
Then, at age 16, Evans and his mother visited Dr. Golightly for a routine vision check and eye examination, which they hoped might also finally shed some light on the boy’s ongoing health problems.
 
A retinal examination immediately revealed papilledema. “I knew right away we had a serious health problem that would require referral,” Dr. Golightly recalled. 
 
Given the swelling of the optic nerve and the progression of the patient’s symptoms, a brain tumor was the probable diagnosis, he assessed.
 
“The tumor was obviously subclinical and none of the doctors he had seen were skillful enough to observe the optic nerve with an ophthalmoscope. We optometrists and ophthalmologists take this skill for granted.” Dr. Golightly said.
 
Optometrists at this time were then just beginning to win recognition as providers of eye health as well as vision care, Dr. Golightly notes. He knew that proper chair-side manner and consideration for the patient would be important. He also knew that prompt referral for a neurological examination was critical.
 
“I wanted to reassure him, because people had been telling him this was all just in his mind,” Dr. Golightly recalls. “At the same time, I did not want to unduly alarm him or his mother.”
 
“I told him: there is something there (in the retina),” Dr. Golightly said, confirming that the teenager had not just been feigning or imagining his symptoms. 
 
“I want you to have this checked out,” he said.
 
Dr. Golightly then referred Evans and his mother to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
 
There, a neurologist confirmed the presence of a malignant tumor in the center of the brain. Evans had a maximum of six months to live.
 
Surgery was scheduled; however, the prognosis was not good, Northwestern practitioners warned.   Worldwide, only three surgeons were familiar with the procedure required to remove the tumor.    The surgeon who ultimately removed the tumor had performed the procedure only 18 times previously. While the tumor was successfully removed, Evans was comatose for five days following surgery and in a near-vegetative state for three months.
 
Although he regained some use of his upper body while in the hospital, his surgeon predicted he would never walk again.
 
However, over a period of months at the Chicago Institute of Rehabilitation, Evans regained not only his ability to walk, but run.
 
Today, in middle age, Evans is married with two children and has enjoyed a successful career as an operating engineer in Michigan City steel plants.
 
Evans authored his new book, “The Amazing,” to celebrate “a life now lived,” the Michigan City News Dispatch reported.  Evans credits his eye examination with saving his life.
 
Over the past three decades such diagnostic examinations have made a crucial difference for many patients as well as for the profession of optometry, Dr. Golightly observes.
 
“Optometrists today have earned a place as an integral and important part of the health care system.  They really are accepted by other health care practitioners — and with good reason. The eye examination can offer insight into overall systemic health in ways that might not be achievable otherwise. Most health care providers, for example, would never have the opportunity to see a fundus photo or understand all that it can reveal about a patient,” Dr. Golightly said.

 “Brain tumors are not common but they can be lethal, and optometrists can play an important role in their early detection. Prompt optometric referrals to the appropriate health care provider will continue to forge the interdisciplinary relationships necessary as optometry strengthens its role in primary patient care,” he said.
 
“Optometrists should also recognize that as primary care providers, we regularly exercise patient management skills that can be comforting and important to a patient with a potentially serious condition. Reassure patients and encourage them to keep referral appointments,” Dr. Golightly said.

Evans’ book, “The Amazing,” can be purchased online at www.amazon.com or at www.booksurge.com.