How a photo gave away a boy's potentially deadly condition

A mum has revealed potentially life-saving advice for other parents after cancer in her toddler’s eye left him with no option but to have it removed.

Kara Sefo, from Newcastle in NSW, recently shared two identical photos taken six weeks ago of her son Rocky with one notable difference in the camera’s setting — one was taken with the flash on and one without.

The image of the two-year-old with the camera’s flash on revealed a reflective spot inside his left eye, while in the other photo, both eyes appeared the same.

The reflective spot inside Rocky’s eye was the result of Retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer that rapidly develops from the immature cells of a retina.

Ms Sefo shared to a Facebook page dedicated to Rocky’s journey, that had the family known about the “simple test”, they would have acted far sooner.

“If we had Rocky at the ophthalmologist when we first noticed something, I’m convinced he would still have his left eye with vision,” she wrote in a post to the page on Tuesday last week.

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She explained how initially they noticed something “strange” in his eye when he was four-and-a-half months old, but didn’t get to a doctor until about two months later.

“Sadly, our GP wasn’t concerned at all, so our appointment for the ophthalmologist wasn’t rushed, and Rocky was seen a month later,” she wrote.

“At that appointment we were told a team would be waiting at Westmead (Hospital) to see Rocky the next morning.”

Beginning the following week, Rocky had to endure six months of chemotherapy to treat cancer in both of his eyes.

“Push forward nearly two years later and Rocky has just had his left eye removed,” she wrote.

The two photos were taken just before he went in for the removal and Ms Sefo wants them to serve as an important warning to other parents.

“I’m not a doctor and not saying that this is the only way to check, you still need to be proactive asking medical professionals to regularly check eyes, but this test is simple and easy,” she wrote.

“Retinoblastoma starts growing as soon as a baby is born and early detection is absolutely key.”

Ms Sefo said Rocky is now the “happiest boy” and hoped that by sharing his experience they could help save other children from suffering in the same way.

She told Yahoo News Australia her message was not designed to scare anyone, and stressed that the spot inside Rocky’s eye was detectable in every photo that was taken using a flash.

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