After taking what turned out to be a life-saving photo of his then 14-month-old son, the father noticed that one of the baby’s eyes looked very different from the other. After an internet search, baby Jackson was on his way to the doctor. Within a month, he was diagnosed with cancer and started chemotherapy.
We can only imagine how terrifying it was to go so quickly from a cellphone photo to a cancer treatment, but when Owen Scrivens noticed the white spot in his son’s eye, he decided to do research and discovered retinoblastoma.
“There was nothing else wrong, although after noticing the eye color he started to develop a bit of a squint,” Scrivens told Metro.co.uk. “I looked at old photos and you can actually see how much it changed at the end of November.”
After the treatment, the family reports that the tumor has already shrunk to a third of its size, although it is not completely gone. The hope is that it turns into a small, benign lump that will be spotted throughout Jackson’s life.
Scrivens says Jaxson is sick for a few days after chemotherapy, but recovers quickly. “His eyesight is fine – they can’t do a proper eye exam, but from what they’ve found, some tunnel vision has been lost,” says Scrivens.
Google’s medical issues often result in rabbit holes filled with worst-case scenarios, but in this case, Scrivens’ decision to find out what the internet had to say might just have saved his son’s life. Through a combination of cell phones and web searches, Jaxson’s cancer was caught early. Thank goodness for modern technology!
Image courtesy of GoFundMe.
