Katarina: Lazy Eye
'My daughter Katarina was diagnosed with a lazy eye (OD Esotropia intermitens, Hypermetropia OU) when she was four in 2013. She was prescribed the bifocal eye glasses and she also had to wear a patch for two to three hours a day. She got used to glasses easily but, as time has passed, wearing a patch every day became a nightmare for her. Our ophthalmologist planned an operation if there were no improvements.
By chance, I heard of Zoran and read about his vision therapy on his Orthovision website. In July 2015, we traveled to Singapore to see Zoran for an in-depth examination. Following which he immediately gave her a schedule of various exercises including Hart Chart, flipper lenses and balancing on the board. He also advised her to stop wearing her glasses. On leaving his surgery Katarina looked at herself in every mirror she could find, very excited about her new appearance.
After two weeks of in-house therapy, we noticed some improvements. We continued with exercises at home (20 minutes Hart Chart + 30 minutes watching TV with flipper lenses) for almost a year. During the last few months she only watched TV with flipper lenses every other day for 30 minutes, which was a relief for her and for us also. To be honest, it was not easy to be persistent. Doing exercises regularly even when Katarina was tired or unwilling took enormous determination and faith in what we were doing. However, once we started to see improvements, there was no going back.
Katarina’s lazy eye stopped moving inwards and her self-confidence, coordination and balancing improved significantly. She was so pleased with these achievements that she wanted to help her best friend in school who had the same problem as her, but who still wore glasses after three operations.
Finally, just a few words about Zoran. He really is a special person. He is realistic, honest, dedicated and gives hope to his patients. There are no words to tell how much we owe him. Katarina adores him and we have become really good friends.
Gorana K.
Maira: Lazy Eye & Myopia
'Maira was diagnosed with lazy eye in April 2010. At that time she was less than five years old. The diagnosis was shockingly bad with 20/800 reading on the left eye. The ophthalmologist also diagnosed a very stong myopia in the left eye and accordingly prescribed eye glasses. Maira also had to wear a patch for six to seven hours a day.
That was the most traumatic time that we as a family had to go through. The lazy eye improved to 20/50 but kind of fixed at that level for almost a year. This lack of improvement was of concern to us as we were running short of time as we Maira became six years old. We had to aggressively explore all avenues for her treatment as the time was passing fast.
Finally after studying the relevant information from the internet we came to know that vision therapy could be the right solution. Surprisingly none of the ophthalmologist suggested vision therapy.
We decided to go to Orthovision and met Mr Zoran. He started vision therapy sessions and results were dramatic. Maira's eye sight not only improved to 20/15 within a couple of months but also the coordination of her two eyes immensely improved.
Orthothovision definitely has the right skills and equipment to treat such conditions. Maira’s focus, confidence and her performance at school has also tremendously improved.
We are very grateful to Orthovision for bringing about a remarkable improvement in Maira’s eyesight and eye coordination. We will remain thankful to Mr Zoran for rest of our lives. Mr Zoran really came as a God sent angel for us.'
Nasiru
SQ: Lazy Eye - A few years later it is still so much better
'My son SQ was diagnosed with a lazy eye (750 degree long sightedness on the right eye) when he was five. After a year of vigorous patching, he was able to see till the very last line of the eye chart with glasses. However, not everything in our daily life is static. He still had difficulty tracking moving objects, finding his things, copying from white board, catching a ball, playing hide and seek, poor handwriting, using a scissors, etc. This affected him socially and emotionally.
I decided to see Mr Zoran after I learnt about vision therapy on the Internet, which was in 2011 when he was six years old. It was only after the therapy started that SQ told me he was seeing double images sometimes, especially when he was tired. He also had very little 3 dimensional vision... which explains why he had trouble gauging depth.
We started to see improvements after 3 months of therapy. His spatial awareness started to improve. Then his eye tracking ability. Within a year or so, his degrees lowered from 750 degrees to 350 degrees.
SQ is now 11 years old. He is with a top local school and will be doing his PSLE next year. We now see Mr Zoran once or twice a year as follow up. His eyesight regressed a bit due to the heavy schoolwork this year but after we visited Mr Zoran again and doing 1 month of vision therapy, it stablised again. He still maintained his degrees at 350. Our sincere appreciation to Mr Zoran. He really made a big difference to SQ's life.'
Mrs Wong HM
Lazy Eye
'Our son has always had a strong interest in books. His nursery school teachers attempted to nurture this interest but were taken aback when he threw down books or got upset whenever an attempt was made to have him undertake an early reading related task. This reluctance to look at text became a bigger problem - he stopped enjoying school and became increasingly frustrated.
We began looking at what could be causing this.
With a stroke of luck, we came across Zoran. We saw Zoran every Saturday for 6 weeks. On the first Saturday, Zoran made an assessment – our son had a lazy eye.
The 5 subsequent weekly visits gave Zoran an opportunity to fine-tune the daily exercises he had asked us to do at home and review progress. By the end of the 6 weeks, the problem was rectified.
The result achieved by our son with the help of Zoran was incredible. Our son, who had become very negative about school, had within months gone onto become one of the best readers in his class and was enjoying school. We could not have been happier with either the service provided or the results it produced for us.
Zoran has a great way with children. Our son really enjoyed the sessions especially the play-based activities. They also appealed to us as parents as there was an obvious logic to the methods employed.
We also appreciated Zoran’s sensitivity in trying to avoid glasses or surgical intervention for the children. To be able to rectify such problems using means that minimise anxiety to the children is the best outcome for all.
We will remain very grateful to Zoran.'
Megan & Jeremy Hill
Hanna: Lazy Eye
'I met Zoran through Brain Train, a remedial support centre for students with learning difficulties where I work as an educational therapist. When Zoran presented himself to the team and presented an overview of what Vision therapy is outlining signs and symptoms to look for in students I felt he was describing my daughter, Hanna.
She first came to see Zoran in June 2006. Following an initial in depth check up, Zoran was convinced he could help us. He immediately prescribed two exercises for Hanna to do; one for accommodation and one for convergence and advised her to stop wearing her glasses. Hanna walked away from that initial meeting a very happy and hopeful girl.
Hanna had been diagnosed in 2000 as having a 'lazy eye’. We noticed that following lengthy sessions of reading her 'lazy eye’ would drift outwards and she would on occasion complain of eye pain.
When we took her to a pediatric ophthalmologist in Singapore she was prescribed glasses and later on contact lenses. As she grew older she began to feel self conscious and uncomfortable about wearing her glasses, she had one 'normal lens’ and one 'coke bottle’ lens that magnified the size of her eye, and she felt contacts were a real nuisance and not very practical for daily wear.
As time progressed, Hanna’s condition improved, significantly. Her 'lazy’ eye no longer drifted outwards following a session of reading, she no longer struggled to see the blackboard or whiteboard in the classroom, and she no longer had the burden of wearing glasses or contacts and felt more confident as a result.
She and I are delighted with the changes. Hanna no longer feels visually challenged and I am delighted that her eyes work together and no longer drift. Zoran’s intervention has really improved Hanna’s eyesight, eye control, confidence, appearance and our overall understanding of how the eyes work and how much intervention can change a life.
Hanna currently sees Zoran for periodic check-ups to ensure her accommodation and convergence abilities remain stable.'
Dana Smith