ican Stories - The Wyatt Dennis Story

Sept 24, 1999, our second child was born.  A beautiful baby boy.  My first look at Wyatt and I thought, “He looks just like his older brother Blake.”  Just like Blake, except something was different.  Not a bad kind of different, just different.  We wouldn’t find out what the “different” was for hours to come.  Then the neonatologist said it, “During Wyatt’s exam, I was unable to find his eyes.”  Being a proud mom who had just delivered a beautiful son hours earlier, I replied, “Can you give him eyes?” and he said no.  My reply was “ok”.  Simple as that.

It really wasn’t simple as that, but I must have been in shock.  Or maybe I just didn’t grasp that my son was blind.  My husband seemed to grasp it, he looked grief-stricken.  Sure my husband loved his newborn son, but it wasn’t what he expected.  None of us expected it and none of us knew a single blind person.  We thought we knew how to care for a newborn baby, now all of that seemed so unfamiliar.  As it turned out, Wyatt wasn’t any different than Blake when it came to all of the basic newborn needs.  The next morning my OB/GYN reminded us of that.  He said that Wyatt wasn’t the one missing vision, it was us.  Simply put, you can’t miss something that you’ve never experienced

The first seven years have been quite a journey.  Early on I made a phone call to ican’s 1-800 number.  From there I connected with the genetics team at Albert Einstein Medical Center.  Wow, to finally talk to a medical professional that not only knew what bilateral anophthalmia was, but who also knew the facts about it!  When Wyatt was 18 months old we attended an ican Conference in Chicago.  For the first time ever I saw another child that looked just like mine.  I still remember seeing a beautiful little girl without eyes in the hotel lobby.   Interacting with families going through the same issues was so reassuring.  Seeing the children laugh and play at the Family Banquet, I knew Wyatt was going to be ok.