Man who loses sight strives to educate others

September 9, 2010

Drew Bernet, of Dallas, Texas, was diagnosed with type 1 juvenile diabetes when he was 3 years old. By the time he was 24, he had lost vision in both of his eyes. Bernet sat down with The Dallas Morning News to discuss his experience with vision loss.

While studying at the University of Arkansas, Bernet began to see spots in his vision. He told the news source it was similar to seeing a bunch of little bugs. At that time, he knew blindness was a possible symptom of his disease, but he still held out hope his eyesight would clear up.

After six months of the spots in his vision, he took a nap and awoke to find that he had lost half of the vision in his left eye. In the weeks that followed, his vision deteriorated until he was completely blind.

Bernet now works to inform others about blindness and ways to cope with vision loss. "You definitely have to change your perspective on how you take things in," he told the news source.

The American Optometric Association identifies difficulty seeing at night, blurred vision and a dark spot in the center of one's eyesight as symptoms of diabetic retinopathy.