One woman in England had her eyes randomly “switch off” while she was driving on a highway, later discovering that the terrifying incident was the result of a rare brain condition.
Shannen Broodryk, 28, had been complaining of symptoms like headaches and blurred vision when she suddenly “couldn’t see” during the road trip from Oxford to Bristol.
She narrowly avoided tragedy by miraculously managing to pull over onto the hard shoulder during her journey.
“I could see a mixture of light but had no idea what was in front of me,” she told South West News Service of the scary incident. “It was as if somebody had put frosted glass over my eyes.”
She added, “I must have had an angel looking over me. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even touch my phone.”
Broodryk was able to make her way home and immediately called her doctor. Eventually, she was referred to an eye hospital, where she got a rare diagnosis: idiopathic intracranial hypertension.
The cause for this condition is unknown, according to the National Eye Institute, but it happens when there is excess tension on the brain, which causes the optic nerve to swell. Other symptoms that Broodyrk suffers from include double vision, nausea and memory loss. It can also affect her speech.
She explained that before the ordeal, she had complained to her parents of having a headache that was so bad that she thought her “head was going to explode.” Broodyrk claims her woes were not taken seriously enough by the medical profession.
“There was three conditions they had to check for — a large tumor, a blood clot through the brain or IIH,” Broodryk said of her diagnosis.
After going for a CT scan, they discovered Broodryk had an abnormally high level of cerebrospinal fluid and diagnosed her.
Broodryk now has a sight-saving shunt inserted in her brain, which is a thin tube to re-direct the excess fluid on her brain. While she continues to suffer from blurred vision, she noted that the diagnosis affected her in other ways, especially in her personal life.
“The swelling went down but the effects are still very much alive,” she said. “The pressure ruptured both of my retinas. I lost my driving license for two years, and I lost my job.”
Now, she takes medicine to manage the condition. Since the sight-saving surgery, Broodryk has returned to her “original passion” and works as a preschool teacher after completing a degree from the Open University.
“I just sat there in disbelief and thought ‘this can’t be real,’ ” Broodryk said of the terrifying incident. “You never think these things will happen to you.”
