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Love is blind
Miracle op gave hubby sight back..and left him a monster
A BRIDE who wed her blind sweetheart is divorcing him after an op gave him back his sight but turned him into a hate-filled stranger.
Tragic Andrew Reiskamp, 29, now suffers with severe fits and catastrophic memory loss.
And just four months after they married tearful wife Erica Denham has left him.
She said last night: "He doesn't know me half the time and constantly tells me to f*** off and that he hates me. I wish I could turn the clock back-if he'd not had the operation we'd still be happy.
"Andrew knew there was a threat of serious complications but he didn't want to be blind for the rest of his life.
"But he was never the same man after the operation, and the change in his personality has wrecked our marriage."
The change in his personality has wrecked our marriage
US-born Andrew met Erica, also 29, on a penpal website in July last year. He'd been blind since 2003-when he fell from a train roof he'd been mending. He had hit his head and damaged his optic nerve.
But the pair clicked immediately and Andrew visited Erica and her daughter Ashleigh, 10, in Doncaster, South Yorks last September. Erica said: "We fell in love so quickly that he never left."
In December his specialist phoned to tell him about a new treatment. Stem cells could be injected into the damaged nerve to restore his sight in one eye. Andrew flew to Atlanta for the op. When he returned a week later he could already see shades of light and dark.
Proposed
Erica said: "The night he got home he proposed to me. Sight or no sight, I knew he was the man I wanted to be with." And the next morning Andrew was able to see clearly out of his left eye.
Erica recalled: "He looked into my eyes, kissed me and said: 'You're more beautiful than I imagined.'"
But just three weeks after the op Andrew started having fits.
The couple wed on April 29, but his condition got worse. Erica said: "He had up to 30 seizures a day. He would wake and not know where he was.
"I called him every half-hour to check he was OK. One day he went missing but rang from Manchester Airport. He said, 'You've been ringing me, who are you? Have I got off a plane?' The next thing he was having a fit."
Andrew was rushed to hospital, where he had 37 seizures in 40 minutes. When he woke he did not recognise Erica.
She said: "He kept on having seizures and each time he came round he'd be nastier, telling me to f*** off. Doctors told me they had given him brain damage and he'd never get better."
So distraught Erica made the heartbreak decision to leave him. And Andrew has now gone home to the US.
She said: "I tried and tried to save our marriage but it was hopeless. It's so sad-he has his sight now but nothing else."
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This article has 11 comments
To all the wonderfully narrow minded people who posted comments about this story have you ever tried living with a violent and abusive person who nor matter how much you love them, help them and try to care for them suns you??? it is very hard!!! i speak from experiance and comments like yours Irene should be thought about before being written how do you know you would not do the same in similar situatuion ? there was a child involved and i would have got myself out of there too! and they say the blind dont see some people are just ignorant to life.
By Bel .. Posted September 24 2008 at 2:16 PM.
What happened to the vow "To be married for better or for worse?". This was a case of "Ok I'll accept him if he's blind but take off if his illness gets any worse and maybe get some mainetenance into the baragain". Again a cruel ***** who knew what she was going into exloits a poor man instead of standing by him when she could have used her good health to get help for him. I pity her next one.
By irene tirtoprodjo.. Posted September 21 2008 at 4:32 PM.
think what is sad about this story is the narrow-minded comments some of the readers have made. I am fully blind 35 yrs old female who works full time before someone else slates me for benefit spounging and neither desperate or feel grateful when i get asked out. the stem cell surgery they mentioned came out last year where 19 people at moorfields hospital had their sight restored as part of clinical trials but still experimental and as for how can we use web-sites? we use speech software and screen-readers like smart butler, HAL and JAWS to name a few so if you can spell "google" try looking up on the software that is out there.
By Bran.. Posted September 15 2008 at 10:35 PM.
This kind of story, doesn't help those who long for a cure. There are too many people who are just waiting for stories like this one. Those who think he was putting fits on for compensation, well he must have been a very good actor!
By Fibi.. Posted September 15 2008 at 8:38 PM.
Jay, how nasty are you. There are some beautiful blind people and just because some one is blind, doesn't say they will have anyone that will have them. Jay, just because you feel like no one would want you, doesn't mean everyone is like that.
By Fibi.. Posted September 15 2008 at 4:16 PM.
What was the stem cell procedure that he had in Atlanta? I have not heard of this kind of stem cell "injection" for a damaged optic nerve. I am curious to find out who performed the procedure in the US?
By Neil.. Posted September 14 2008 at 5:38 PM.
Marg. Computers have the ability to speak the words on screen so blind people to hear what is on their screen :). I agree though, this is a sad case.
By Lindsay .. Posted September 14 2008 at 1:09 PM.
how did they meey on a website if he was blind , surly this day and age they can do something to stop the fits they do , what a sad end
By marg.. Posted September 14 2008 at 10:15 AM.
I have to agree with Jay on this one. She is better off without him if this is the case.
By Laura.. Posted September 14 2008 at 6:50 AM.
I smell compensation.
By Sandra Jones.. Posted September 14 2008 at 6:39 AM.
I think he got his sight back and thought this is not the person I would have picked if sighted, when he was blind he felt desperate and felt gratefull that somebody liked him for who he was.
By jay.. Posted September 14 2008 at 2:24 AM.