Ocularist John Pacey-Lowrie, who you may remember from our blog on prosthetic eyes, discusses some experiences of heightened senses for those who have had vision loss.
ENHANCED SENSES
The human body is an incredible machine when you think about it (not including my own!!) and our senses are auto-adjusted to in a way compensate for sensory loss, at least that is my opinion, not a scientific fact.
During my years as an Ocularist it has been my privilege to work in a couple of incredibly special school’s for blind or acutely visually impaired children, to expound my theory about enhanced senses I want to relay a couple of true stories that happened along the way, real names have of course been altered to protect individuals’ confidentiality.
My first tale goes back to 1978 when I used to visit the Worcester College for the Blind whilst working for the NHS Artificial Eye Service. The college itself set in a beautiful area, a magnificent, impressive building which I am reminded of whilst watching the Harry Potter films. A massive old staircase that led up to various classrooms and the medical room. The first time I visited I remember how the kids all aged between eleven to sixteen used to run up and down this staircase with not one recorded incident or accident and given that these guys were all blind was indeed impressive. My clinic room was very small and had no outside waiting area so the appointments had to be carefully scheduled to avoid an overspill, on this occasion however whilst working quietly on a child’s prosthetic eye the door burst open and a young lad tapped his way in and quietly sat down in a spare seat, before he uttered a word my patient shouted out ”what are you doing here James Smith, this is my appointment and I don’t want you here”…hold on I said how do you know that’s James Smith? “ Oh, I can smell him sir“. Smith said nothing and I then asked, “what’s your name lad?” “James Smith”, sir he replied and I was quite shaken to witness how the sense of smell was so enhanced these guys could recognise each other by smell alone!!
That same day I took lunch in the dinning room with the kids and a senior student invited me to play cricket with them after school! Now remember I was a rookie Eye Fitter in those days and never gave a thought as to how blind folks could play cricket, but play they did and would put some professionals to shame, the ball was oversized and had a bell inside, when the bowler made his run up he or she would shout “play” and the batsman would reply “ready” and they were belting that ball for boundaries every time, needless to say when it was my turn I was out for a duck!! After the match they invited me to join the rowing team for a race down the river but I declined as I was not as brave as these wonderful people, the sense of hearing was so enhanced it was no problem to strike a fast-moving ball!! I also discovered that a sizeable number of these students went on to university to study music and others qualified as first-class piano tuners.
Regarding music, I trained as a percussionist in my lifetime and that musical role demands the player has perfect pitch which takes me to Dublin for another fascinating event.
Again, I was privileged to offer my services as an Ocularist at Child Vision in Dublin and although these kids from pre-school and above were not all totally blind they were all acutely visually impaired, all the kids I treated there fifty-five in one year ! Some had all suffered from retinoblastoma.
At one session I met the music therapy teacher and as we chatted it came out that I was a trained percussionist and she invited me to sit in at a music class, the class were in late stages of rehearsal for a national school band/orchestra competition and so it was a very intense session with a great deal of input from one very picky percussion player…every time the music teacher counted them in and the music started this young lady thumped a big drum bringing the music to an abrupt end saying, “Miss the fiddles are out of tune and I can’t play my part unless they tune up“. Well I was flabbergasted at this outburst as were the string section and I boasting perfect pitch couldn’t hear the alleged problem. “Ok”, said the Musical Director, “Can we please all tune up” with many moans and groans the tuning process began again, well this happened four times and by now the other musicians youngest being 7 years old) were clearly angry and upset, eventually the rehearsal got underway but overran by a good thirty minutes. At the end of the session the ensemble were all berating the percussionist for messing them around to which she replied in a loud strong but sweet Dublin accent “There was nothing wrong with your tuning but now you all owe me because I have got us all off a maths lesson as were so late”. The sense of hearing was acute but her sense of humour was unbelievable!! They went on to win the competition.
These apparent sensory enhancements seem to develop quickly in people that have never had any or extremely limited visual acuity but for those that suffer eye loss or acutely diminished vision later in life it is a different story and I believe a far slower process.
This story talks about a 35-year-old man Sam who suffered loss of both eye in a dreadful motoring accident. A couple of years after this event Sam was offered a guide dog which he was delighted about, the thought of gaining some independence and new freedom had great appeal and so he arrived one day in my Cambridge clinic with Hercules the biggest bouncy golden retriever I have ever seen, so big in fact that at each appointment Sam asked me to weigh the dog and record the result for him as he worried about the dog being overweight and therefore unfit for the job. In those days I worked in the Artificial Limb unit so there were proper large scales available. Then one day Sam arrived for treatment but without the dog “Where’s the big fella?” I asked, “Oh I still have him but just as a pet now, he failed his assessment so lost his job” it was clear that this had once again restricted Sam’s freedom and whilst happy with his pet buddy he was now hoping for a replacement dog. So I asked what happened…”Well we were out on a route guiding assessment and I harnessed the dog and told him we were going to the post office, we left the house turned left walked 130 steps to a crossing, over the road no problem then turned left again, all good, then Herc guided Sam into a shop and sat down. The shopkeeper said, “How can I help you mate” …”Oh said Sam proffering his cash card, “Can I have 10 first class stamps and fifty pounds in cash please?”. The shopkeeper replied “Well if you buy something I can give you cashback but I don’t have any stamps”….”Oh”, said Sam, “Why is that? Is there a shortage?“ …”Well, no”, replied the shopkeeper. “You’re in the butcher’s shop!!!!!“.
So, Sam’s sense of smell having been blind for a brief time had not developed enough to alert him to being in the wrong place, nothing wrong with dogs sense of smell but that said it cost him his job and temporarily Sam’s new freedom ☹ Herc made a well-behaved pet though and Sam eventually regained his freedom. 😊
Merry Christmas to all and a happy new year to everyone, with special best wishes to the wonderful team at CHECT for their terrific work x
JPL