A fun day at the beach turned into a months-long medical ordeal for a Seattle teenager who went temporarily blind after doing cartwheels with her friends. Deborah Cobb, now 42, was just 19 when she decided to see how many cartwheels she could perform in a row. After completing 13 consecutive cartwheels, Cobb fell over, feeling dizzy and quickly realizing that something was wrong with her eyesight. She said her eyes felt like they were spinning, and she realized they weren’t focusing. At first, she thought things would get back to normal after a few minutes in the upright position. “There was no pain, and my peripheral vision was fine, but everything I looked directly at was blocked by an orange blur,” said Cobb. When her vision had not improved by morning, she headed off to the hospital. Doctors initially thought she had sunburned her retinas, but when she saw a retinal specialist, she got a far more serious and rare diagnosis. She had hemorrhaged in both of her maculas and it was going to take 3-6 months to fully heal. “In healthy individuals, especially young people, this occurrence is quite rare,” said ophthalmologist Dr. Rajesh Rao. He went on to explain that the head being upside down abruptly or repeatedly can increase pressure in the veins in the retina, causing them to hemorrhage. While Cobb’s vision did return after about three months, the bizarre injury still causes issues. She still suffers flashes of light and dark floaters caused by retinal jelly detachment. Her only option is surgery, but that almost always causes cataracts, which would require another surgery. “I’m okay to just live with it,” said Cobb. Despite the ordeal, Cobb remains grateful for the joys in her life. "There are so many simple gifts that could be bringing us joy every day, if we just learned to appreciate them. That's what this experience taught me — never stop being grateful.”
