Page 13 - WesternU View - Fall 2017
P. 13
“I just couldn’t be in an environment with The brain injury resulted in a
host of problems, including
lots of noise, and those lecture halls were short-term memory loss,
auditory processing deficit,
just very distracting and too difficult to sit visual impairment, and spatial
through. I couldn’t remember anything. processing deficits. He had
debilitating migraines from
I was lost all the time.” – Jacob Green light sensitivity and had trouble
retaining what he read.
After more than two years of full-time rehabilitation, he re-entered a university environment
at the University of California, Irvine, earning his bachelor’s degree and then a master’s
degree from Cal State Long Beach, helped by his rehabilitation team and newly learned
compensatory techniques. He also returned to the workforce, first part time and then full
time, working as an EMT and a dispatcher, and then entering public service. He began as an
analyst, and after 11 years and six position promotions became assistant city manager of
Ontario, California, a community of 170,000 inhabitants served by 1,200 city employees
and a $500 million budget.
But Green continued to struggle with three to five migraines per week because of the
fluorescent lights in his office building. “I would just sort of bear it out as long as I could.
But every single night I was incapacitated,” Green said. “I was at the ER a lot. I was having
a lot of vomiting and nausea and all kinds of problems as a result of fluorescent light.”
One of his colleagues recommended he seek aid at Western University of Health Sciences’
Eye Care Institute, where he connected with WesternU College of Optometry Chief of
Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Valerie Quan, OD, FAAO.
Green was wearing dark gray glasses with a mirrored coating
that hid his eyes, which made some people suspicious and
reduced his effectiveness as a politician, Quan said.
His assistant would read documents to him
so he could keep his eyes closed and
focus on decisions at work, she
said. Her first thought was to
try to get him out of those
mirrored lenses.
Continued on page 12
https://news.westernu.edu/westernu-
eye-care-institute-is-a-game-changer/
11
host of problems, including
lots of noise, and those lecture halls were short-term memory loss,
auditory processing deficit,
just very distracting and too difficult to sit visual impairment, and spatial
through. I couldn’t remember anything. processing deficits. He had
debilitating migraines from
I was lost all the time.” – Jacob Green light sensitivity and had trouble
retaining what he read.
After more than two years of full-time rehabilitation, he re-entered a university environment
at the University of California, Irvine, earning his bachelor’s degree and then a master’s
degree from Cal State Long Beach, helped by his rehabilitation team and newly learned
compensatory techniques. He also returned to the workforce, first part time and then full
time, working as an EMT and a dispatcher, and then entering public service. He began as an
analyst, and after 11 years and six position promotions became assistant city manager of
Ontario, California, a community of 170,000 inhabitants served by 1,200 city employees
and a $500 million budget.
But Green continued to struggle with three to five migraines per week because of the
fluorescent lights in his office building. “I would just sort of bear it out as long as I could.
But every single night I was incapacitated,” Green said. “I was at the ER a lot. I was having
a lot of vomiting and nausea and all kinds of problems as a result of fluorescent light.”
One of his colleagues recommended he seek aid at Western University of Health Sciences’
Eye Care Institute, where he connected with WesternU College of Optometry Chief of
Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Valerie Quan, OD, FAAO.
Green was wearing dark gray glasses with a mirrored coating
that hid his eyes, which made some people suspicious and
reduced his effectiveness as a politician, Quan said.
His assistant would read documents to him
so he could keep his eyes closed and
focus on decisions at work, she
said. Her first thought was to
try to get him out of those
mirrored lenses.
Continued on page 12
https://news.westernu.edu/westernu-
eye-care-institute-is-a-game-changer/
11
