My husband (34 years old) was in a minor car accident and was diagnosed with whiplash. Two days later he began experiencing a haze in his vision. After a week he had flashing lights and an almost complete loss of central vision in his right eye.
He went to his optician, who believed she saw a macular hole and told him to make an appointment with an opthamologist as soon as possible. The soonest appointment available was a week away. The opthamologist told him he didn't see anything, although by this point he had lost the central vision in his left eye as well. He referred him to a retina specialist, where he couldn't get an appointment for two weeks.
By the time he got in to the retina specialist, he could not see colors. He had no central vision in either eye. He was suffering constant headaches and nausea from the strain of trying to see. (He had been trying to work this whole time, which has now been four weeks since the accident and the onset of the symptoms.) The retina specialist found macular scarring in both eyes and told him there is no treatment.
I have two questions:
Could this have been caused by the car accident he was in, or was this just a coincidence?
and...
If the opthamologist had seen it and acted on it sooner, could something more have been done before he lost his vision completely?