For a moment, Tyron Vakapuna thought he was still dreaming. He knew it was morning but all he could see was darkness. Then he realised his eyelids were still shut and no matter how much he tried to open them, they remained firmly closed.
He turned to his girlfriend Natalie Sellars (28) and with a shaking voice told her, “Honey, I can’t open my eyes.”
That was in September and Tyron (26) is still coming to terms with the rare condition that made him blind overnight.
“It didn’t feel real,” says Natalie, who has become Tyron’s eyes. “I was telling him to open them but, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t do it.”
For the past three years, Tyron has suffered from random facial spasms, but these were left untreated because doctors felt the spasms weren’t a major problem. Natalie immediately took Tyron to hospital where medical experts had to admit they were baffled by the young man, who is fit, healthy and has perfect vision when he can open his eyes.
The only condition that might fit is a neurological disorder called dystonia, where specific muscles seize up in Tyron’s case, the muscles that control his eyelids. Even bouts of Botox around the eyes, which soften the muscles, have not worked.
For the past two months, Tyron, who works for Wellington City Council’s parks department, has taken time off from his job. Now he’s left at home by himself during the day while Natalie works in a beauty salon.
Tyron can only see again when he physically holds his eyelids open with his fingers.
Not knowing what has caused this devastating condition is a huge frustration to Tyron. “I’m gutted that something like this is happening to me while I’m still young,” he says. “I could cope with it if I was older, because I would have been financially set up and have achieved more things.”
The former rugby and American football player says he hopes that a cure can be found, and would be very disappointed if he has to be classified as blind, especially when he has perfectly good vision.
“I’m not actually blind I just can’t open my eyes so it’ll be really hard for me to live my life as a blind person.”
Before this ordeal, Tyron and Natalie were considering marriage and babies but these have been put on hold for now, while the couple comes to terms with Tyron’s problem. Although the experience has been extremely challenging for both Tyron and Natalie, they believe it has brought them closer together.
“What’s happened to Tyron is completely random and unfair,” says Natalie. “I won’t stop looking for a cure. He’s a good person and he deserves the best things life has to offer.”
Tyron is staying positive that he will get to open his eyes again, and he says it’s the support and love from Natalie that have kept him going. “She is staying positive for both of us,” he says.
