When Julie Fitzgerald saw something strange about her two-year-old son Avery’s eye, she became concerned. She noticed it when the light in Avery’s eye hit at a certain angle. She began to do some research online to see if there was anyone else who had the same problem and knew what caused it.
She came across another woman who noticed something unusual in family photographs. Instead of her relatives having the usual red-eye reflection from the camera’s flash, they had a completely white reflection. In that woman’s case, the cause was determined to be cancer.
Julie decided to take a picture of Avery to see what color his eyes’ reflections would be. When she looked at the photo, she noticed that one of Avery’s eyes was red and the other was white. Her two other sons both had normal, red reflections. At first, Julie’s husband said it was nothing to be worried about. However, Julie decided to take Avery to an eye specialist to be sure. That’s when she got the news that she dreaded: Avery had multiple cancerous tumors inside the eye.
Avery’s eye could not be saved and had to be removed. The doctor said that it was possible that Avery may have been blind in that eye his whole life. Fortunately, the cancer was caught early enough and before it spread to his brain and blood.