As time goes by, our eyes naturally begin to weaken. Small details, like leaves on trees, may begin to blur, and we may rely on eyeglasses, contact lenses, or even magnifying glasses to aid us throughout the day. Generally, this type of vision impairment happens gradually with age.

However, when Dianne Smith began to experience rapid vision loss over the course of one year, she became worried and uncertain about her prognosis.

Dianne began experiencing sudden blindness and vision loss at the beginning of 2022, when she was 66 years old. This sudden onset prompted her to quickly make an appointment with her ophthalmologist. After reviewing her symptoms and discovering cataracts, which are an opaque or cloudy film on the lens, she was scheduled for cataract surgery. She was hopeful that the surgery would resolve her vision loss, particularly in her right eye. Her surgery went well, and she recovered fully.

However, her vision continued to worsen.

Despite her successful surgery, Dianne reached a point where she was almost fully blind in her right eye and was also losing sight in her left eye. The smaller details around her began to blur. Her primary care doctor and ophthalmologist agreed that she needed an MRI to ensure nothing more was causing this issue.

Dianne met with Lakeland Regional Health and USF neurosurgeon, Dr. Davide Croci. Dr. Croci ordered an MRI and soon realized that Dianne was experiencing a much bigger reason for her blindness.

Pressing on her optic nerve was a large meningioma, a benign tumor the size of a golf ball.

Dr. Croci and his team planned to remove the nearly 4-centimeter tumor from the middle of her brain with the hope of restoring her eyesight.

After the 7-hour surgery was complete, Dr. Croci and his team waited patiently for Dianne to wake up. While surgery is never a complete guarantee, they were very hopeful for a positive result. A few hours after Dianne woke up, she slowly opened her eyes and glanced at the words on her whiteboard chart across her bed — “Mrs. Dianne Smith” with a smiley face next to her name. She broke into a huge smile as she realized that she could see.

When Dr. Croci visited Dianne the next day, he found her reading in the chair next to the window.

“I was so pleased to see her incredible improvement,” said Dr. Croci. “We expect her to make a full recovery. It’s these types of wonderful stories that motivate our team to keep doing what we do.”