Late one evening, a guest called to say his son had gone
blind. That was beyond my expertise, I explained, but the guest insisted on a
housecall.
Sure enough, the son, age 18, seemed blind although
my exam was otherwise normal. He seemed only mildly upset. A stroke affecting a
tiny area of the optic nerve can cause blindness with no other symptoms, but
this would be extremely odd. It could be psychosomatic, but it’s risky to jump
to this conclusion, and the family insisted that nothing stressful was
happening.
I sent them to an emergency room. The doctor found
nothing abnormal and summoned an ophthalmologist who concluded that the
blindness was psychosomatic. You’re probably wondering if he was right, but
this is a real story. They checked out, and I never learned what happened.
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