A POST office worker’s life has been saved by a quick-thinking optician.
Susan Crammond was at home watching TV when suddenly a terrible pain shot up and down her left arm.
She thought nothing of it but a few minutes later she went blind in her right eye. It was a terrifying ordeal which left Ms Crammond in a state of shock.
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“Everything in that eye went black,” she recalls. “I shouted on my partner who was upstairs and told him I couldn’t see.
“For some reason he decided to shine a torch into my eye and a few minutes later a bit of vision returned to the bottom half of the eye. The top half was still blacked out.”
Her sight gradually returned, but the following day she went to work in the post office in Glasgow’s Easterhouse’s main shopping centre.
On hearing about her trauma her workmates insisted she visit local opticians, Caboodle Eyecare.
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Ms Crammond said: “Within five seconds the place was like a scene from Casualty. Annette Halnan, the optician, carried out a few rapid tests on my eye and by the look on her face I knew something was seriously wrong.”
Ms Halnan phoned Ms Crammond’s doctor and arranged an emergency appointment for her.
The next day she was in Stobhill Hospital, where she was told she’d suffered a mini stroke and was prescribed medication which means she has to take four pills a day for the rest of her life.
“I’m really pleased Susan came to see me,” said Ms Halnan. “The condition if left untreated could have resulted in a stroke, which can then lead to death.
“Currently it is known that one in 12 people with this condition will have a stroke within one week so seeing a medical professional quickly is essential.”
Ms Crammond added: “If it wasn’t for Annette’s quick response, I would have lost my life.”
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