A dot in her child’s eye was brushed off. Now she is partially blind (exclusive)

When Maggie Spicer welcomed her daughter Emerie to the world, she believed what every new mother hopes to believe: that her child was completely healthy.

But a small white dot in her newborn eye, dismissed as harmless by several doctors, would reveal an year -long medical mystery that left Emerie legally blind in an eye.

The family’s story first caught widespread attention after Maggie split it into a NU-Viral Tiktok videoWhere she said, “When you see something in her eye, and you ask the doctors, and they say it’s a birthmark.”

Maggie first noticed the dot the day Emerie was born. “It’s pretty obvious. I asked the doctors there, and they said, oh, it’s like a birthmark – that’s basically what they said,” Maggie tells People.

Maggie was exhausted and new to motherhood and wanted to trust the pros. Still, she couldn’t shake her concern. “Maybe it has not been satisfied right, because I still asked two other doctors for it in different places,” she says.

Each time her worries were brushed. “After the third I was, okay,” she remembers, but the worry remained.

Emerie passed all her newborn views, including her vision test. But when Maggie was looking for details in the medical record, it just said that Emerie had gone, without explaining what was actually controlled.

At the next pediatric control, Maggie took up the point again. “I told them what the hospital had said. I wonder if I didn’t say so, if they would have questioned it more,” she adds. “But they just agreed with me.”

At her 1-month meeting, another doctor echoed the same feeling: nothing to worry about. Emerie developed normally, learned colors and met his milestones. “She had no symptoms for me to question anything at all,” explains Maggie.

For several years, life continued as usual until Emerie turned 3 and her eye began to turn inward. It was Maggie’s mother -in -law who first noticed.

By then Maggie had changed premieres, and this time her worries were finally taken seriously. “That’s when we got the referral to see the ophthalmologist,” she says.

Emerie underwent a complete dilation survey at the age of 3. “When she was expanded and the ophthalmologist controlled her, she was like,” Oh my gosh, she has cataracts, “says Maggie. The diagnosis was a shock.” I knew nothing about congenital cataracts. I just thought the elderly will get it, ”she adds.

Emerie had lived with two cataracts: one in the eye with the white dot and a full coverage rear cataract in the eye that turned. The second cataract had blocked signals to her brain and mainly closed the eye from the development.

“If they had given me the referral and I would have had dilatation and examination, they would have done surgery directly,” says Maggie. “We would have patched and done all this when she was baby. But we had to do it three years late, and at that time it was just too late.”

Maggie juggled life with a child and a 1-year-old when the diagnosis finally came. “It was pretty hard for sure,” she shares. “I only had my son.”

Emerie didn’t completely understand what was happening, but Maggie did everything she could to prepare her. “I have her a little doll, and it has a small note on her,” she shares. Reading books on surgery helped, but nothing could make the recovery easy. “She hated the drops,” reminds Maggie.

“I would have to wait until she slept to make some of them, because they burned so badly,” she explains. “I had to bribe her with marshmallows – she was obsessed with marshmallows.”

At the same time, Maggie balanced his infant son and the heavy feelings of mother’s guilt. “I didn’t give him enough time. She needed so much,” she says.

After Maggie shared Emerie’s story about Tiktok, she was overwhelmed by the answer. “I originally shared it just to tell my family about what happened, and then it just blasted and turned into the whole thing,” she says.

The diagnosis was optical atrophy, which meant that no blood flow reached the nerve. “We are no longer patching,” explains Maggie. “It was a silver lining because patching was so difficult.”

The first post started a wave of messages from parents who had noticed similar symptoms in their own children. “There have been two mothers who have informed me,” says Maggie. “One of them announced me the day I published Emerie’s story, and she is like,” Oh my gosh, my daughter has the same dot. “” Maggie helped her get a referral for the operation.

Another mother handed out about her son. “She’s like, I think you may have helped his vision,” recalls Maggie. “If I have to continue to share to help others, I will do it,” she says.

Maggie says she now understands how easily parents can brush. “I especially believe something that needs to be treated shortly after birth … The doctors should know to give the referral,” she says. “If they see something strange, give them the reference.”

The online community Maggie Built has become a source of strength and comfort. “Reading other people’s stories has been very comforting,” she shares. “People say,” I was born with this, but that’s all I know, “and that’s what her ophthalmologist also says. She will live a normal life.”

Emerie, now 5, adapts to its version of Normal. “She’s like, oh, so you don’t see that?” Maggie says with a soft laugh. “It’s hard to explain to her that she is different, but I don’t think she sees it in a negative way.”

Today Maggie and her husband are constantly checking in with Emerie about her eye. “Is your eye okay today? Is it annoyed?” she asks daily.

Never miss a story – register for People’s free daily newsletters Keeping up to date on the best of what people have to offer, from celebrity news to compelling stories of human interest.

Emerie wears a contact lens in the affected eye, plus glasses. “She still gives me hard to put it in until once a week,” says Maggie about the lens. There are more operations ahead – muscle repair to straighten the eye, as the doctors say can take more than one attempt. “I think it will be next summer,” Maggie adds.

Their visit to the ophthalmologist is now every six months, but Maggie admits that the worry never really fades.

This experience has changed how she sees parenting – and the medical system – forever. “I will never trust my gut again,” she says. “I just keep pressing until I get the answer as I want, in principle or proof of something. It’s your job as a parent: to protect them.”

For parents out there who may doubt themselves, Maggie has a clear message. “Just rely on your instincts,” she says. “If you need a referral, press it.”