Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Retinopathy of Prematurity: Richard Shapiro and babyblindness.com

Preeminent Attorney Richard Shapiro has his site up and it is impressive. www.babyblindness.com is a site that addresses and explains Retinopathy of Prematurity.

"Retinopathy of Prematurity (R.O.P) is a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants weighing approximately three pounds or less, born before 31 weeks of gestation (A full-term pregnancy has a gestation of 38–42 weeks). The smaller a baby is at birth, the more likely that baby will develop ROP. This condition is one of the most common causes of visual loss in childhood and can lead to lifelong vision impairment and blindness." There is a Resources page as well.

Richard spoke with me and said that he actually hopes to put himself out of business by addressing the root cause of this - to him - avoidable consequence of premature birth. With proper testing and procedures in place, preemies born with ROP should be diagnosed and treated in a way that the condition is almost unheard of in three to seven years.

The zones of the retina in R.O.P.:





Go to the site here.