It was a happy day for Micaela Dayan and Francisco Morla on August 30, 2015, when their second child, Sara, was born. But, the joy surrounding Sara’s birth soon turned to fear, worry and helplessness.

When the attending pediatrician performed the neonatal screening on Sara, the doctor noticed that the newborn’s left eye was cloudy and unresponsive to light.

The family was immediately referred to Nicklaus Children’s Division of Ophthalmology for a more thorough examination.

“As new parents, we were super worried. We weren’t sure if she had a tumor, a detached retina or if she would be blind in that eye,” Dayan said. “The day I was discharged from the hospital, we were off to Nicklaus Children’s.”

Dr. Roberto Warman, director of pediatric ophthalmology, diagnosed Sara with unilateral congenital cataract. First, he prescribed her with dilating eye drops to see Sara’s reaction to light, while a decision was made on whether or not surgery was the best choice.

Not long after, the family was referred to Dr. Zenia Aguilera, pediatric ophthalmologist at Nicklaus Children’s for eye surgery. Dr. Aguilera successfully removed Sara’s optical lens, which was clouding her eyesight.

At follow-up exams, Sara’s eye was responding to light and her eye pressure remained stable—all indications of a good surgical outcome.

 “We feel grateful to Dr. Warman, Dr. Aguilera and their team for the immense care they have taken to help Sara and to calm a pair of worried and scared parents.”

Today, Sara is a happy, healthy baby girl.

Sara wears an external contact lens in her left eye and daily eye patches on her right eye to exercise her left one. She will also undergo a second surgery, in the future, to replace her intraocular lens.