A mother’s cell phone turned out to be life-saving. This simple baby’s picture just changed her 2-year-old son’s life.
Cameras can definitely play tricks on us, but when one woman saw something strange in a photo she took of her young boy, her motherly instincts kicked in and she knew she had to trust her intuition.
At first, Julie Fitzgerald thought her 2-year-old son Avery’s eye was normal, when she noticed a slight spec of discoloration. It wasn’t until Julie took a picture of her son and saw that one of his pupils came out red, while the other was pure white — something she soon learned meant much more than a bad angle — that she became concerned.
“Probably a couple months I would notice when I was looking at Avery in a light I would see something in the back of his eye,” said Julie.
Julie started to wonder what it could be and went online. She found an article about a woman who saw a white eye in photos of relatives instead of the normal red eye and it turned out to be cancer. Julie told the story to her husband, Patrick Fitzgerald. He says he told her it was nothing, but Julie couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong.
“I took a picture and I did not want to take the picture because I had this dreaded feeling in the pit of my stomach and I took the picture and boom. His whole pupil was just white and that's when I knew,” she added.
When Julie brought her child to a specialist, the doctor confirmed her worst fear, because Avery had multiple cancerous tumors covering his left eye. It was retinoblastoma, 75 percent of his eye was covered in tumors and it had to be removed.
“He took one look and said there are multiple, multiple tumors,” said Julie.
However, it’s very likely that the photo saved her son’s life, as the rare cancer could have spread to his brain and blood if they had waited much longer.
The Fitzgerald family found out Avery had likely been blind in his left eye his whole life, but tumors started growing just six weeks earlier. Avery’s dad, Patrick, stated that he has very simple advice for other father's out there.
“Listen to your wife – that would be the first thing. Trust your gut,” he said.
Avery will eventually get a prosthetic eye and he is now being tested to see if he has a genetic marker that could mean he is at risk for more cancer. His family also still doesn't know if he has to go through chemo, but right now they believe all the cancer has been removed.
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