New Eyes on the World: Restoring Karen's Vision

For most of her 21 years, Karen lived in a physical world that rarely extended beyond her wheelchair in the small town of Husi, Romania. But as the crippling effects of spina bifida robbed her of her vision, that world began closing in tighter still.

Then a visit by a JDC delegation – which she calls her "guardian angels" – launched a global effort spanning three continents that opened up her once constricted life to unimagined possibilities. "They took me and my family under the protection of their great family: the Joint," Karen recalls.

Karen’s first memory, though, is of the orthopedic brace that failed to correct a congenital malformation of her spine. With her mother working long hours to support the family in Romania’s struggling economy and her father disabled by back ailments, she went to live with her devoted grandparents just a few blocks away.

Unable to navigate their apartment’s twisting hallways in her wheelchair, Karen adjusted to the four walls of her cheerfully decorated bedroom and found a connection to the outside world through home schooling and television. She quickly fell in love with – and mastered – the English language by watching American cartoons. And it would be that thirst for knowledge that would ultimately change the course of her destiny.

Though intellectually gifted and blessed with a sense of humor, Karen’s physical condition continued to worsen, bringing her to the brink of total blindness. Her parents turned to the Jewish community’s JDC-supported welfare program, and traveled with her to Suceava for a screening by a volunteer in the Atlanta-based Project Vision (PV) network.

He recommended transplant surgery for her right eye, but Karen was not yet a candidate. For the moment one door had closed, but another opened back in Husi: Jewish Education in the Mail (JEM), a new outreach program launched by the Romanian Jewish Federation (FEDROM) and the JDC Jewish Service Corps volunteers in Bucharest.

JEM was Karen’s first connection with her Jewish heritage, and she tackled each subject with enthusiasm. It also led to her first ongoing contact with other Jews, when a letter of thanks she sent to the volunteers brought her to the attention of local youth.

What she calls her "big lucky break" followed: the arrival of the JDC delegation and a follow-up consultation in her home by a PV ophthalmologist. Thanks to JDC, Karen traveled to Israel for intensive palliative care and occupational therapy that gave her greater independence, teaching her to use a new computer and to move from bed to wheelchair unassisted. Unfortunately, though, her eye remained inoperable.

Returning to Romania, Karen made the best of the situation, biding her time until her eye was finally ready. With help from the Romanian Jewish Federation, she returned to the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, with her grandmother, where JDC – together with the Center and the Ministry of Health – funded her care.

Years of lost vision, months of therapy, two trips to Israel, a three-week wait for a suitable tissue donor, and one surgery later, Karen’s transplant was a success. She passed the weeks of recovery talking with other patients, relishing the spaciousness of the wide-open campus and helping out when she could. "If I’d had my own two legs," Karen offers, "I would’ve been a nurse."

After Karen's recuperation, JDC also made her dream of visiting Jerusalem come true. She returned home having seen Israel’s grandeur and having witnessed – through the efforts of JDC and its partners – just how wonderfully small the Jewish world can be.

Now back in Husi, Karen can read with her right eye. "I can even see the faces on television," she says with delight. And with support from JDC, she will soon pursue career training over the Internet. "I pray that my eyesight will come back completely and that G-d will give the Joint the power to help others as it has helped me."

If you would like to be in contact with Karen, please write her at Israel@jdc.org. romanianprojectvision@jdc.org. She welcomes every opportunity to be in touch with her global Jewish family.