A boy named Ben had no eyes. Not at all - literally. They were surgically removed when Ben was less than three years old. It was eye cancer, retinoblastoma. This is indeed one of the rarest forms of oncology. Today they know how to heal it without losing organs, but then there were no other ways besides amputation. Although our story is not about that
When Ben entered the new room, he loudly clicked his tongue - and that's it, he didn't need anything else. He unmistakably sat on a chair, took objects, could even type text on the keyboard. He saw the whole room, down to the smallest object. He also rode a skateboard, constantly clicking his tongue, and swam in the pool. He stopped using the cane at the age of six.
This is called sonar vision, and Ben was the most talented person with this ability.
The boy was born on January 26, 1992 and was completely healthy. Not a day in the hospital, not a day at the doctor's. Only sometimes my mother (her name is strange - Aquanette) noticed that Ben's right eye was different from the left. A little bit. It glowed, reflecting light, like cat's eyes glow in the dark. Two years after Ben was born, in 1994, it became clear that the boy could not see with his right eye - the pupil began to turn sharply white. The ophthalmologist said that there can be many reasons for this - additional research is required. And the most difficult year in the life of Ben and his mother began - research to make a diagnosis.
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Retinoblastoma, cancer in both eyes is a terrible diagnosis. Ben's grandfather died in 1977 of colon cancer - but eye cancer seemed to his mother something monstrously impossible. By the way, my grandfather's name was also Benjamin, and Ben was named after him.
This type of eye cancer only affects young children. Up to three years old. Once he was diagnosed with a six-year-old boy, but this is an exception. If the eye is left untreated, the cancer will affect the optic nerve - and the brain. And that's all. Here is a typical view of a child with retinoblastoma:
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The right eye could no longer be saved - it was removed. The left was fought for another eight months, but no chemotherapy helped. There were two options: Ben dies or Ben lives blind. Of course, they chose the second option. He was three years old. The photo above seems to be reflected, because all sources indicate that it was the right eye that suffered first, and in the photo the red one was the left.
Ben spoke quite well already, and he said at some point: “Mom, I don't see anything. I don't see anything at all. By that time, it was clear that vision would not return, and although the eyeballs were still in the eye sockets, his mother began to teach the boy to “see” by third-party methods - with the help of hands, ears, and smell. “You can see without eyes,” she said. And she was right.
Promotional video:
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Everyone tried to help Ben. His older brother Derius taught him how to put things in permanent places, the younger brother Isaiah often accompanied Ben, describing the surroundings to him. Everyone treated Ben well. He grew up a really smart and cheerful child.
And, oddly enough, he behaved in almost the same way as sighted children. I rode a bicycle, skateboard, climbed trees. The mother was almost certain that he - without eyes - could see. At least it seemed so from the outside. He could describe the landscape in front of him (though not in color, only in shape) or the relief of the road. "It's an echo, Mom," he explained to his mother, "I just hear the echo of things."
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And everything would have gone on as usual, if not for one case. The fact is that Ben played computer games. He had a Gameboy, and he handled it pretty well. His mother, a religious man, did not see anything unusual in this. God gave him this ability, and okay. But one day the blind boy saw Dr. Ruben. And he was a little surprised. Let's say even more: he was completely nuts.
Ruben didn't know who Ben was. The boy just sits and plays a gameboy. And something is wrong with his eyes, clearly not right. Glass, or something … Then Ruben brought up Ben's case and looked at his medical history. And he asked my mother: is he really playing a game? True? Mom answered: yes, of course. He loves it very much. And he also rides a bicycle, rollerblades and a skateboard, drives a scooter.
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Since then, Ben has become famous. They began to investigate it. His name appeared on the front pages of the Sacramento Bees and The Observer newspapers. People Magazine paid Ben a trip to the largest dolphinarium and research linking the sonar "vision" of dolphins and humans. Many times he performed in radio shows, lectured in various schools and boarding schools. He did it with pleasure - because he helped others. The same as he - blind.
How did Ben "see"? Like a bat. Bats hunting in clear skies or around tree crowns typically emit "chirps" of constant frequency tones, which are replaced by modulated tones with a rapidly decreasing frequency as they approach the prey insect. They use these sounds for echolocation. It is the reflections of sounds from obstacles or from victims that their auditory system is interested in. Ben constantly made sharp clicks with his tongue. It is their reflections from objects that make up the picture of the world for him.
Of course, it's not that simple. Of course, he had to read books written in Braille. Or listen to audiobooks. How did he play at Gameboy, you ask? Very simple. He memorized the time to obstacles in different "walkers", calculated the pauses between the sounds accompanying the game. And he set a goal: to pass. And he passed. That is, the sonar did not work here, of course.
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But Mom told the doctor about Ben's abilities. About how he, driving in a car, catches reflections from buildings and can even determine their number of storeys. How to navigate without a stick anywhere, even an unfamiliar one. As any "heard" landscape keeps in memory.
It should be noted right away that Ben is unique, but not entirely. Approximately 5% of the blind have well-developed echolocation abilities. Moreover, so are the sighted. It's just that they are not developed at all in our country. In the bud. You noticed behind yourself: you pass near the wall and feel: there is a wall. Close your eyes, and all the same: there is a wall. Yes, there is a wall.
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In the blind, this feeling is exacerbated. With Ben, it became abnormally developed, completely abnormal.
The developer and promoter of human echolocation is Daniel Kish. He is blind, and he orients himself in the world like Ben, that is, by clicking his tongue. Kish is a certified specialist, teacher, his lessons are used by thousands of blind people around the world. Kish:
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He developed his method around 1996-1997. Ben would have learned to "hear" the world without Kish's help - with his somehow abilities, but it was Daniel who became the guiding line for the blind boy. Kish has always maintained that Ben is the most capable of his students.
There are several other well-known "human sonars" that can move freely using echoes. In addition to Ben and Daniel Kish himself, these are Kish's students - the blind-born Englishman Lucas Murray, the Belgian Tom de Witte, who was finally blind at the age of thirty (2009), as well as Dr. Lawrence Skadden, one of the participants in human echolocation experiments.
Photo: Credit unknown / fishki.net
Long before Kish, there was a human locator named James Holman. At the beginning of the 19th century, he traveled half the world, being partially blind.
Photo: Credit unknown / fishki.net
If you watch Ben's video, you can see how he types - both on a regular keyboard (60 characters per minute, not bad) and on a Braille keyboard. In 2008, he even started writing a science fiction novel - Aquanette says he wrote about 20 chapters. He dreamed that he would develop computer games for the blind, and even wrote down some of their concepts. He had quite beautiful handwriting.
Photo: Credit unknown / fishki.net
He loved Japan very much and taught Japanese on his own to communicate with his Japanese friends in their language.
Photo: Credit unknown / fishki.net
He never judged people by their appearance - because he had not seen her. “It’s a problem for you, sighted,” he said, “that you see each other and judge each other by outward signs, not noticing anything else…” Everyone loved him, this is a boy who had less than them, but was able to do more.
This article is in the past tense. Because on January 19, 2009, Ben Underwood died. Cancer still didn't let him go.
Photo: Credit unknown / fishki.net
Poor boy. Maybe he could write his science fiction novel. And would make a lot of games for the blind. And graduate from college. And he would get married (he had a girlfriend).
The main thing is that he did not give up.
Never give up, even if things are bad. Because it's actually okay.