Medical Student Shows How Vision Is Affected By Different Medical Conditions Through A Series Of Photographs, and It's Truly Eye-Opening
These photos do an excellent job of illustrating just how challenging it is to live with these conditions.
A Ghana-based medical student is getting a lot of attention for turning a complicated topic into something people can actually see. His TikTok video uses photographs to show how different medical conditions can affect vision, and the results are hard to forget.
The post has already reached more than 400,000 viewers, and it covers everything from migraines and color blindness to cataracts and visual snow. It is the kind of visual breakdown that makes everyday sight feel a lot less ordinary.
By the end, the message is simple, these conditions can change how the world looks in ways many people never think about.
1. Migraine with aura, also known as classic migraine - studies about what exactly causes these auras are still ongoing.
med_kelvin2. Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that affects reading, writing, and spelling.
med_kelvin3. Eye floaters are typically caused by aging; microscopic fibers in the eye clump together and cast shadows on the person's retina.
med_kelvin
4. Deuteranopia, or green-blindness, is a type of color blindness where a person cannot perceive the red-green wavelength of colors.
med_kelvin
5. Tritanopia is also known as blue-yellow color blindness.
med_kelvin
Another example of Tritanopia.
med_kelvin
6. Protanopia is red blindness, where a person lacks red cones and sees more green than red.
med_kelvin
7. Achromatopsia is total color blindness, where one lacks the ability to perceive any color.
med_kelvin
8. Blindness refers to a loss of vision that cannot be corrected with lenses or glasses.
med_kelvin
The same kind of tough tradeoff shows up in the AITAH debate over rehoming a puppy because a partner’s allergies got severe.
9. A person is considered legally blind if their vision cannot be improved beyond 20/200, even with the help of eyeglasses.
med_kelvin
10. Myopia is a visual condition wherein a person can see objects that are near clearly, while distant objects appear blurry.
med_kelvin
11. Astigmatism is a condition where the cornea of the eye is not perfectly round, causing blurry vision at all distances.
med_kelvin
12. Hyperopia is the ability to see distant objects clearly, while closer objects appear blurry.
med_kelvin
13. Glaucoma is a group of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve. It is one of the leading causes of blindness for people aged 60 and above.
med_kelvin
14. Nystagmus is the involuntary rhythmic movement of the eyes—side to side, up and down, or in a circular motion.
med_kelvin
15. Diabetic Retinopathy is a complication caused by diabetes; it involves damage to the blood vessels of light-sensitive tissues at the back of the eyes.
med_kelvin
16. Visual Snow is a neurological disorder that causes a continuous visual disturbance described as flickering dots, similar to noise from analog TVs.
med_kelvin
A manifestation of visual snow under different conditions and environments.
med_kelvin
17. Diplopia, or double vision, is the perception of two images of the same object, and it can affect one or both eyes.
med_kelvin
18. Synesthesia is the experience of one sense through another. For example, hearing music but seeing shapes, or hearing a word and immediately seeing color.
med_kelvin
19. Prosopagnosia, or face blindness, is the inability to recognize or differentiate faces.
med_kelvin
20. Cataracts refer to the clouding of the normally clear lens of the eyes; it's as if you're looking through a frosted or fogged-up window.
med_kelvin
If you've never had any of these medical conditions, it's easy to take sight for granted. The photos above provide an excellent visualization of what it's like to live with these visual impairments.
It also highlights that much remains to be done to make public spaces more accessible for people who have difficulty seeing. This is definitely a step in the right direction, and we have the video created by Kelvin Fiagbe to thank for it.
After hearing Billy Porter was “clinically dead for 3 days,” see what sepsis does next in his sepsis story.