WASHINGTON — Houston congressman Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye in Afghanistan, said Friday that emergency surgery for a detached retina two weeks ago went well but he still isn’t sure how much sight he will recover.
“I still cannot see much other than lights and shadows,” he said in a statement issued through his office. “I am not sure how my vision will be in a few weeks, but I am hopeful and confident that it will return to normal.”
Two weeks ago when he revealed that he had suffered a detached retina, he called it “a terrifying prognosis for someone with one eye, and the nature of the injuries that I sustained in Afghanistan.”
Crenshaw, 37, went to an ophthalmologist after seeing dark blurry spots and underwent emergency surgery the next day at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston.
“During the surgery, they put a ‘silicon buckle’ around my retina and used a laser to ‘glue’ around the edges of my retina,” he said. A gas bubble was injected into the eye to act as a bandage for the retina. The bubble will dissipate in a few weeks.
“I cannot fly on an airplane for at least six weeks because the pressure changes while flying may cause the gas bubble in my eye to expand,” he said.
The retina was in place at a follow-up appointment last week, he said, and “I can lift my head up again and no longer have to position myself face-down, which is a relief. This is obviously good news, but it doesn’t mean we are out of the woods yet.”
Crenshaw was elected to Congress in 2018 and reelected last year.
The injury that cost his right eye came six months into his third deployment, when he was hit by an IED blast during a mission in Helmand province. His left eye was also badly damaged, and it took several surgeries before he regained sight.
He deployed two more times, to the Middle East in 2014 and to South Korea in 2016. He retired from the Navy in September 2016 as a lieutenant commander, leaving with two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
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April 24, 2021 at 04:35AM
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Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s surgery on remaining eye went well, but ex-SEAL’s sight still limited to ‘lights and - The Dallas Morning News
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