Too Much Oxygen
Wonder described the tragic incident to Oprah in detail. An unhealthy abundance of oxygen was administered to the baby Stevland while he was inside the incubator, causing abnormal blood vessels to sprout within his eyeballs. Such vessels then made their way to the retinas of his eyes, which coat the eyes’ rear tissues. The vessels then hemorrhaged, which hurt the retinas to the point that they detached from the eyeballs. Could anyone have suspected that this process was happening while Stevland lay in the incubator?
Too Much Oxygen
Scientific Understanding
The National Eye Institute calls this process prematurity, or retinopathy. It is a condition that often strikes premature babies that weigh in below 3 pounds. So many blind people would have been struck with this condition as babies. It was in 1942 that the condition was initially identified, a discovery that would affect Wonder just eight years later when he was born. While many people would lament this debilitation, Wonder believed that he had been fortunate in this situation.
Scientific Understanding
