The father of a four-year-old girl with a sight-threatening disorder has won a three-year battle to change NHS guidelines which could help thousands of children.
Doctors failed to spot that Fuad Mohammed’s daughter Shakila had a rare eye condition which affects one in 70,000 people. It was only when she was taken to a private clinic that aniridia — which causes partial blindness — was diagnosed. Shakila now wears protective sunglasses and could suffer from cataracts in the future.
Mr Mohammed said her eyes would not have been exposed to harmful sunlight if her condition had been picked up sooner.
He claims a GP said it was not diagnosed at birth or at the eight-week check because a test where red light is beamed onto the back of the eye would not show up possible problems in thousands of black and Asian children.
Mr Mohammed, 40, a school worker from Stepney, said black babies with eye problems had an orange, rather than red, tint in their eyes.
A spokesman for the Newborn and Infant Physical Examination programme said Mr Mohammed had raised the issue that the test might be harder to interpret in babies from certain ethnic groups with more pigmented retinas. He added: “We are finalising an online training package for clinicians and thanks to Mr Mohammed we have included information about this.”
Mr Mohammed said Shakila was “my inspiration even when it looked like I was getting nowhere”.