Surgeon's eye test plea after checks save daughter

Jay Jayamohan and his daughter Anna have been helped by the Harry's Hat charity

A paediatric neurosurgeon has urged people to take advantage of free routine eye tests for children after one detected a potentially life-threatening condition in his daughter.

Consultant Jay Jayamohan's team at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford undertook the surgery on his 12-year-old daughter Anna after an eye test detected swelling on her optic nerve.

She had surgery after she was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, which causes excess fluid to build up inside the brain and can cause brain damage.

Mr Jayamohan said it had now “become a bugbear” to encourage more take-up of the eye tests to try to uncover other undetected issues.

He said Anna did not have any symptoms before the test – and is now “absolutely fine”.

“She uses the scar to play on when she needs to – ‘I’ve had brain surgery’ – but her two sisters are gradually getting bored of that,” he told BBC Radio Oxford.

He added: “It taught me that I have absolutely got the best nurses and doctors around [in my team].

"To me that was a real eye-opener. We talk about ‘this is what I would do if it was my own child and I would trust them with my own kids’ but I can say that.

“We are very lucky in Oxford that we have got so many medical teams and nursing teams that are top notch.”

According to the Harry's HAT charity, every year one in every 770 babies will be diagnosed with hydrocephalus.

Free NHS sight tests are available for children under 16 and for young people under 19 in full-time education.

“[Promoting free eye tests] has really become a bugbear of mine. For kids, it’s free – you don’t lose anything by getting them done. It’s not super fancy or expensive. It’s just routine,” Mr Jayamohan said.

“There are so many things that can be freely picked up and diagnosed. We get very few free things these days - let’s use them.”