Soon-to-be-blind child creates ‘bucket list’ of things to see

TORONTO – A nine-year-old Texas boy has created a “bucket list” of things to see in the world before he goes blind.

Scar tissue left over from previous health issues is causing Ben Pierce to slowly lose vision in both eyes.

Ben was born more than four months premature and was so underdeveloped, his eye lids were still fused together at time of birth, according to Dallas WFAA-TV.

“It prevented his retinas from detaching, but it also left some scar tissue,” Kit Pierce, Ben’s father, explained. “And so every time he grows, as his eyes are growing, the scar tissue is not stretching. So he’s losing a little more eyesight each time he has a growth spurt.”

Other than his eyes, Ben is healthy.

“Sometimes I see little dots appearing out of nowhere,” Ben told  the TV station. “I just don’t want to be blind.”

According to WFAA, doctors suggested to the family Ben should see as much as he can before blindness so he has as much visual memory as possible.

So they a made list.

From NASA mission control to Harry Potter World at Universal Orlando, the Pierce family is slowly making headway on Ben’s “vision list,” with the help from donation pages set up in his honour.

“It does feel pretty urgent to us that we try to get him to as many of these places as quickly as we can,” his mother told WFAA. “But when we look how far he’s come and how many odds he’s overcome and how amazing it is that he’s even here, it gives us hope that maybe we’ll pull off a few more miracles.”