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September 30 — PROVO — Charles Gasser,
MD, took his dog for a walk last Friday morning. During the walk, he
bent over and when he stood up the vision in the left eye went to grey,
then completely black. Two hours later, he received the diagnosis of
central arterial occlusion, an extremely rare condition that causes
complete blindness.
By noon on the same day, Dr. Gasser was in
the hyperbaric oxygen chamber at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.
Five minutes later, he started to see light and dark. His vision
continued to improve and after seven treatments Dr. Gasser has
approximately 75 percent of his vision restored.
Central arterial
occlusion is caused by a problem in the vein of a person’s eye. The
hyperbaric medicine physicians at Utah Valley Regional have never seen a
patient with the condition and Dr. Gasser’s ophthalmologist has only
seen four in his 25-year career.