Tam’s mother first discovered he had issues with his vision when they visited the park together. She pointed out some pretty lights to him, but he couldn’t see them.
She realized that, unlike the other children pointing and laughing, Tam was squinting and struggling to see. The family had a friend who worked at Binh Dinh Eye Hospital who suggested they took Tam for a check-up.
There, he was diagnosed with bilateral cataract that could only be corrected with surgery. “At first, I was very surprised,” Tam’s mother, Thao, told us. “I didn’t know what to do about it. Then I was very worried - I didn’t know if the surgery would go well and then if he would be fine for the rest of his life.”