‘Giving up was not an option’

Eight years ago when Kayon Samuels went to the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) for laser eye surgery, she thought it was the saving grace she needed to restore her vision.

However, it did the total opposite.

The mother of boys at the time said she initially went to the hospital for laser treatment because she “kept seeing lightning flashing in her eyes” and was told by physicians that the veins in her eyes were breaking and the laser treatment would stop that from happening.

“Unfortunately, it never stopped it. It stopped something else. It stopped the seeing,” she told The Gleaner in an interview on Thursday, which was globally recognised as World Sight Day.

“To me, it (becoming blind) happened the same day, [because] I went in seeing and had just finished reading a book, and when I came out after the laser [treatment], I came out crawling. I couldn’t see anything at all, and the doctor said, ‘Oh, it will clear up’, and it hasn’t cleared up,” she recalled, while doing massage therapy for other visually impaired persons on the grounds of the Jamaica Society for the Blind’s St Andrew offices on Thursday.

Samuels said she believes her vision also deteriorated because she is diabetic.

Amid all that has happened, Samuels is grateful that she has not died.

“I’m not dead, and I never gave up. I just tried my best to find something else to do. Dem seh ‘Wa no dead, no dash weh’, and I didn’t intend on giving up,” she said.

Samuels, who was working as a nail technician at the time she went blind, later decided to learn another hands-on skill.

“I was in a depressive state wondering what I’m going to do, and I eventually went to the HEART College of Beauty Services, and they said they did massage, and that’s where I learnt my skill, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since,” Samuels told The Gleaner.

Now, that is the career that brings her some form of independence each day.

“I go everywhere [in the Corporate Area to do massage therapy]. I live in Portmore, but I go everywhere – Stony Hill, Spanish Town, etc. A lot of persons won’t come to Portmore, so I go to them,” she said.

Although many persons have encouraged her to sue the hospital, Samuels said she gave up trying because she was told that her docket could not be found.

“I did seh, ‘Cho!’ Mi no bother. Once there’s a God, there’s a way, and I don’t think giving up is an option, and I’ve found another niche to move on with life, so I continued with life, and I have been happy,” Samuels said.

She said the abrupt turn from being visually able to visually impaired placed her in a whole new world by herself.

“Thank God for Jamaica Society for the Blind. I went and I was taught how to use my cane. I was taught how to cross the road. I learnt how to use my phone. I did a computer class,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that they have for blind and visually impaired persons, and they don’t charge us anything.”

The 48-year-old masseuse told The Gleaner that it was not easy overcoming the depression, but her new personalised business services provided an exit from the mental anguish.

Word-of-mouth marketing has helped her to find new clients, and her rates for massages begin at $6,000 per person per one-hour session.

Samuels has two sons, ages 20 and 29.

She said they were both shaken when she became blind, especially her younger son. However, they are now grown men who have adapted to the life change and have allowed her to be independent.

“I go about the place all by myself. I don’t wait on anybody to take me anywhere unless I have to go do a service. I go downtown [Kingston], Half-Way Tree. Anywhere I want to go, I just back out my cane and mi move,” Samuels boasted.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com