SeekingJana
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- Nov 12, 2007
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Quote from Believe09's post to me:
"I can see you have experience in this area-are you saying that a blow to the head caused his cataracts to form in 24 hours? If not that, are you saying that laying with eyes open in the sun for less than 24 hours caused blinding cataracts to form? Because we have established that these cataracts were not due to illicit drug consumption or years of alcohol abuse. So just to make sure I am clear-blinding cataracts can form in less than a 24 hour period without needing some accelerating factor like drugs (illicit or otherwise like prednisone). His retina was not burned, which in my ignorance I assumed would be the first thing to go if he were laying in the sun with his eyes open for a period of time.
You seem to be saying that the cataracts could not have formed slowly narrowing his field of vision because no one would tolerate that."
Believe,
I respect you. I am not here to argue with you.
The lack of vision is very distressing, whether immediate or over a period of time. It doesn't matter. When people can't see, life is a threat, not a joy.
I had no intention of relating this, but since you keep pushing the theory that Ben would indeed walk around with " developing cataracts", unable to recognize himself in the mirror, etc, let me tell you how it feels to not be able to see for periods of time per day, every day, for all of one's life.
I am legally blind without corrective devices. My eyesight has been so poor for all of my life that I dare not risk LASIK surgery. I could end up sightless permanently. I know why, but it is complicated and gives no merit to Ben's story because I do not have cataracts. My perfect eyes were permanently damaged as a newborn in a hospital. I have been told how lucky I am to have ANY sight.
I cannot see the big E on the eye chart.
I know what almost blind is like and it is HORRIBLE.
Trust me when I say these things to you from the bottom of my heart, from years of experience.
Every day, I know what it is like to wake up and have NO IDEA what time it is because I cannot read the numbers on the clock. On any clock.
I know what it is like to run into furniture, to trip over objects, to try to find a ringing telephone, to have the doorbell ring and wonder who is on the other side of the door because I cannot see through the windows.
I know what it is like to go on vacation and wake up in terror, because the steps and route to the bathroom where my contact lens are is a different route from usual.
I have related my experiences. I also know that people who have very limited voluntary movement in nursing homes, long term nursing home residents have cataracts removed on a regular basis and have normal vision restored with a minimum of discomfort or recovery time.
I would think this speaks to the fact that we as a society and medical personnel in particular recognize the basic right to have a life with sight.
No ethical doctor in his or her right mind would have refused Benjaman help.
As to HOW the cataracts formed, I don't really understand why you are focused so intently on this.
NO, a blow to the head does not cause cataracts, nor did I ever imply such.
I said that it is entirely possible that he did NOT have normal eyesight because of another assault shortly before the one we know about, the assault behind the dumpster.
We have NO WAY to know what happened to Benjaman before this final beating and torture. He could have been held against his will for some time for reasons we do not know. We do not know who beat him, if it was one beating or a series of beatings, or why he was a target in the first place. ( if there can ever be a " why".).
My point is that he could have been sprayed with pepper spray or mace repeatedly. He could have had a chemical burn to his eyes which went untreated because he was being beaten and held against his will, then the state of being unconscious caused his eyes not to close, with damage to the lens. I am sure that if I had access to the medical records of his eye exam, we would see that he had other eye injuries which were treated such as corneal ulcerations, blepharitis or any number of things.
I think it is short-sighted of us to concentrate on only what the police have been able to tell us- that he was FOUND behind a dumpster, beaten. He was somewhere else before he was behind the dumpster, and we have NO WAY to know where that was or what the conditions were.
We know nothing about his days and nights before that last day when he was found. He could have been somewhere else, in harm's way physically, against his will. There are a lot of sadistic people out there.
Until we KNOW what happened to Benjaman from start to finish, if it is our place to know, then I suggest we concentrate on where he is now, and the fact that his eyesight has been restored through surgery, not using untried theories like the one that he walked around so severely impaired that he could not recognize his own face in a mirror for an extended period of time of his own volition. In so doing, we are assuming quite a lot, not the least of which is that he was a person who did not value his eyesight. I believe the premise is demeaning to this man and I do not agree with it at all. The main reason I do not agree that he tried to navigate the world in a haze of blindness is because it is against human nature to do so, self-preservation being the strongest instinct we have.
I also believe Benjaman is intelligent and would have sought emergency help for his eyes, if that was all that was wrong physically, had he been in ANY condition to do so himself.
Sincerely,
Maria
"I can see you have experience in this area-are you saying that a blow to the head caused his cataracts to form in 24 hours? If not that, are you saying that laying with eyes open in the sun for less than 24 hours caused blinding cataracts to form? Because we have established that these cataracts were not due to illicit drug consumption or years of alcohol abuse. So just to make sure I am clear-blinding cataracts can form in less than a 24 hour period without needing some accelerating factor like drugs (illicit or otherwise like prednisone). His retina was not burned, which in my ignorance I assumed would be the first thing to go if he were laying in the sun with his eyes open for a period of time.
You seem to be saying that the cataracts could not have formed slowly narrowing his field of vision because no one would tolerate that."
Believe,
I respect you. I am not here to argue with you.
The lack of vision is very distressing, whether immediate or over a period of time. It doesn't matter. When people can't see, life is a threat, not a joy.
I had no intention of relating this, but since you keep pushing the theory that Ben would indeed walk around with " developing cataracts", unable to recognize himself in the mirror, etc, let me tell you how it feels to not be able to see for periods of time per day, every day, for all of one's life.
I am legally blind without corrective devices. My eyesight has been so poor for all of my life that I dare not risk LASIK surgery. I could end up sightless permanently. I know why, but it is complicated and gives no merit to Ben's story because I do not have cataracts. My perfect eyes were permanently damaged as a newborn in a hospital. I have been told how lucky I am to have ANY sight.
I cannot see the big E on the eye chart.
I know what almost blind is like and it is HORRIBLE.
Trust me when I say these things to you from the bottom of my heart, from years of experience.
Every day, I know what it is like to wake up and have NO IDEA what time it is because I cannot read the numbers on the clock. On any clock.
I know what it is like to run into furniture, to trip over objects, to try to find a ringing telephone, to have the doorbell ring and wonder who is on the other side of the door because I cannot see through the windows.
I know what it is like to go on vacation and wake up in terror, because the steps and route to the bathroom where my contact lens are is a different route from usual.
I have related my experiences. I also know that people who have very limited voluntary movement in nursing homes, long term nursing home residents have cataracts removed on a regular basis and have normal vision restored with a minimum of discomfort or recovery time.
I would think this speaks to the fact that we as a society and medical personnel in particular recognize the basic right to have a life with sight.
No ethical doctor in his or her right mind would have refused Benjaman help.
As to HOW the cataracts formed, I don't really understand why you are focused so intently on this.
NO, a blow to the head does not cause cataracts, nor did I ever imply such.
I said that it is entirely possible that he did NOT have normal eyesight because of another assault shortly before the one we know about, the assault behind the dumpster.
We have NO WAY to know what happened to Benjaman before this final beating and torture. He could have been held against his will for some time for reasons we do not know. We do not know who beat him, if it was one beating or a series of beatings, or why he was a target in the first place. ( if there can ever be a " why".).
My point is that he could have been sprayed with pepper spray or mace repeatedly. He could have had a chemical burn to his eyes which went untreated because he was being beaten and held against his will, then the state of being unconscious caused his eyes not to close, with damage to the lens. I am sure that if I had access to the medical records of his eye exam, we would see that he had other eye injuries which were treated such as corneal ulcerations, blepharitis or any number of things.
I think it is short-sighted of us to concentrate on only what the police have been able to tell us- that he was FOUND behind a dumpster, beaten. He was somewhere else before he was behind the dumpster, and we have NO WAY to know where that was or what the conditions were.
We know nothing about his days and nights before that last day when he was found. He could have been somewhere else, in harm's way physically, against his will. There are a lot of sadistic people out there.
Until we KNOW what happened to Benjaman from start to finish, if it is our place to know, then I suggest we concentrate on where he is now, and the fact that his eyesight has been restored through surgery, not using untried theories like the one that he walked around so severely impaired that he could not recognize his own face in a mirror for an extended period of time of his own volition. In so doing, we are assuming quite a lot, not the least of which is that he was a person who did not value his eyesight. I believe the premise is demeaning to this man and I do not agree with it at all. The main reason I do not agree that he tried to navigate the world in a haze of blindness is because it is against human nature to do so, self-preservation being the strongest instinct we have.
I also believe Benjaman is intelligent and would have sought emergency help for his eyes, if that was all that was wrong physically, had he been in ANY condition to do so himself.
Sincerely,
Maria
