Paige Kummerfeld is one of a kind and now doing great!
Temple, Texas, pediatrician
Bethany Black, MD, examined Paige
and referred her to McLane Children’s
Hospital Scott & White pediatric
ophthalmologist Monica Verma, MD.
Paige was diagnosed with infantile
esotropia, a rare form of strabismus
(eye misalignment) in which one or
both eyes turn inward. It can result in
permanent vision loss if not corrected
by the time a child reaches the early
years of grammar school. Infantile
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The Catalyst April 13 | sw.org
estropia can appear during the first
six to eight months of life. One in
every 2,500 babies is diagnosed with
this inherited condition, and it had
affected children on both sides of the
Kummerfeld family in the past. Paige
also had weaker vision in her right
eye—a fairly common condition known
as amblyopia or “lazy eye”—and no
depth perception, making those early
feats of hers that much more amazing.
Because of the family history of
the condition, Mrs. Kummerfeld asked
Everett Moody, MD, of Irving, Texas,
the pediatric ophthalmologist who had
previously treated her, for a second
opinion. Mrs. Kummerfeld appreciated
Dr. Verma’s willingness to collaborate
with Dr. Moody. “It gave her and me
peace of mind to have two physicians
on the same page,” says Dr. Verma.
Dr. Verma recommended glasses
and patching Paige’s left eye for four
hours a day to strengthen and retrain
her eye muscles. At first, it was difficult
to keep glasses on the four-monthold child, even with an assortment
of straps. But as Paige grew, she
stopped fighting the glasses when she
realized she could see better with them.
Mrs. Kummerfeld began matching
Paige’s patches to her outfits and tried
to make her feel special. “If she was
going to have to wear glasses and a
patch, we were going to treat them as
accessories. If her outfit had animal
prints on it, so did her patch,” she says.
Three-year-old Lilly was a big help too,
reminding her sister and her mother
when it was time to patch. “Lilly is the
best big sister, and calls Paige her best
friend,” says Mrs. Kummerfeld.
When Paige was seven months
old, Dr. Verma recommended surgery
to achieve eye alignment. She would
move the inner ocular muscles in both
eyes to maximize binocular vision and
the chance of gaining some depth
perception, relieve any double vision,
and improve the right eye’s vision. Five
hours after the procedure, Paige dropped