Teen 'given the gift of sight' thanks to surgery at SickKids

Fourteen years ago, the Desrochers family was told that their son Zachary was blind.

"That was our first Christmas and that was a day after we saw an opthamologist in Mississauga who said he would never see," his dad Ray Desrochers told CBC News.

"Fourteen years later, Zachary's been given the gift of sight, and it's something we never thought would be possible. It's a very special Christmas for us," his mother Shamalia Desrocherssaid while holding back tears.

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Zachary was born with a rare congenital disease that not only affected his vision but his ability to wear glasses.

"It's part and parcel with children who have developmental challenges," Shamalia explained. "They don't tolerate glasses on their face or contact lenses so we went through quite a few pairs. We continually tried. He just didn't want to wear them."

Two weeks ago, Zachary underwent laser eye surgery at Toronto'sHospitalforSick Childrenand his parentshavesince noticed significant improvement.

Dr. Kamiar Mireskandari heads a new program at the hospitalthat is treating young patients who cannot wear glasses. It's the only hospital in Canada performing laser eye surgery on children.

"When you have a child that has developmental problems or maybe severe autism, they just cannot tolerate having (glasses) on their face,"Mireskandari said. "So parents haven't been able to keep the glasses on their face for five minutes sometimes. And therefore the child doesn't get the benefit of the glasses."

Mireskandarisaid the equipment for thesurgery wasdonated and aninnovation grant paidfor the procedure. Hesays the hospital expects to perform similar surgeries on between20 to 50 patients a year.

Shamaliaand RayDesrochersdescribedthe impact of seeing Zachary after he underwent surgery.

"He was very groggy and in pain so I was trying to comfort him, and Ray came in a few minutes later and called Zachary's name," Shamalia said. "He immediately turned to Ray's voice but it wasn't just turning. He made direct contact with Ray and I thought, I've never seen him look at anybody directly before. It was amazing!"

Ray agreed with his wife.

"It was a pretty emotional moment. I'll never forget it. I never thought my son would ever look at me."