Abstract

Fifteen minutes after having a coronary angiogram, as a preoperative test before replacement of my ascending aorta in 1998, at 41 years of age (Hankey 1999), I was lying on a trolley in the recovery room of the catheter suite, looking at the ceiling, and noticed something moving in the inferior temporal crescent of my right visual field. It was quite clear, like water, swirling about, and painless. I thought it was a problem with my right eye, and closed each eye in turn and could not convince myself that I could see it with my left eye. Over the next few minutes, the image gradually built up, and spread superiorly and medially toward the centre of my visual field. Again I closed each eye in turn and the image was now visible in the right visual field of both eyes. After about 10 min, I began to go blind