Comments on: Tritanopic after Head Injury

By: DSE

DSE — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:24:53 +0000

I am 51 now and am just discovering that there is something known about blue-green color”blindness.” I first discovered when I was in science class in 7th grade that I can’t distinguish dark blues/greens/blacks/grays/purples, like in sweaters or t-shirts. I label them when I get them so I can know what I’m wearing later. I also have a hard time distinguishing dark bodies of water at a distance from dark plowed fields (here in the Midwest).

I now also have found that I can’t see these light (unsaturated) colors onscreen. I’ve had to adjust my software color palettes so that I can distinguish things that are color-coded. I have never asked an eye Dr about this, even though I go regularly because it is only recently that I have realized how much it affects me.

I did have a very severe head injury, when I was about 5, in a fall down the basement steps, backwards, hitting the concrete floor with the back of my head and being unconscious for an unknown length of time. It has never gotten better, but I’m interested in knowing more about this. Any suggestions?

By: Daniel Flück

Daniel Flück — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:34:56 +0000

Kathleen, thanks for sharing your daughters story with us. Personally I think you can’t really do anything about it. Just hope for the best. In some cases correct color vision just came back.

If you really want to do some insight testing have a look at Prof. John L. Barbors website. They are definitely a good place to visit or contact from GB.

All the best to you and your daughter. – Daniel.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:06:17 +0000

My daughter was hit full on with an aluminum baseball bat on the right side of her head at a birthday party when she was 8 years old. Unfortunately I was not there when this happened and only know what I was told and what I discovered 5 years after the incident. She was probably knocked out (conflicting stories) and then received stitches for the cut on her temple. No cranial x-rays, cats or mris were done. At the age of 13 we realized that she was seeing her colors all mixed up.
Red – no longer saw at all.
Green – seen as blue
Blue – seen as green
Yellow – seen as pink
Pink – seen as yellow
Orange – seen as orange
Purple – seen as purple
Turquoise – seen as turquoise
Black, brown, grey, white – all seen as normal.

We have done lots of tests had all sorts of exams since discovering this and no one can do anything about it.

My personal theory is that, when this occured at age 8 only one eye was damaged. Progressively the brain which couldn’t deal with the correct color vision in one eye and messed up color vision in the other eye eventually and gradually adapted to see things as the damaged eye saw things. As this happened gradually (and only being 8) this basically went unnoticed until we came back from a month long trip and my daughter saw her cotton-candy pink bedroom and declared it was a gross color (we later realized that it looked like mustard yellow to her). We FINALLY realized that something was seriously wrong when we were hanging a fire-engine red shower curtain and she commented on it being a dark green. After this we really started to question her on what colors were what and realized that her colors were completely messed up. Nothing much to do about the color confusion except deal with it. However, NOW what is of major concern is that she is having complete vision loss. We have been told that these are “optical” migrains. She will be having testing done in August (eeg and seeing a migrain clinic here in Paris France). If anyone out there is doing research and would be interested in doing some indepth examinations with my daughter we’d be very interested in doing more testing. Such a sad thought that she’s never ever going to see the color red ever again.
Please feel free to contact us at: kathleenparis@aol.com (we live in Paris)

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:56:56 +0000

A similar thing happened to me. I was driving myself and my friend Zac home from a hockey game at around 11 on a saturday night. We were struck head on by a drunk driver. I don’t remember anything after the impact, all I remember was seeing the blinding headlights swerve towards us. I was in a coma for a week and when I woke up I remember noticing everything was different. I kept it to myself for a few hours but then I asked when things were different colors. I took this test and the doctor determined I had tritanopia. He says I will confuse green as being blue and yellow as violet. That happened when I was 17 and I am 19 today and I still have it.

By: Daniel Fluck

Daniel Fluck — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 19:02:55 +0000

Peter, thanks a lot for your insights into acquired color blindness. I couldn’t find anything about possible therapies which could reduce the deficit but it is definitely worth looking for it.

Also thanks for the hint, that this could be an interesting case for the scientifc community. I would say a win-win situation whereas both parties could learn more about it.

I updated the article to be sure everybody reads also your comment.