The Blind Boy Who Learned Human Sonar | The Story of Ben Underwood

[00:00:00]I want you to meet a really special person. Even if he was only in our lives for a brief bit of time, he made such a difference to those who knew him and those of us who learn about him as time has gone on. In 1992 in Sacramento, California, a beautiful child named Ben Underwood was born. He was a normal, healthy toddler, except that his mother noticed in one of his eyes a yellowish or reflective looking light that wasn't pinpoint, but it was pretty significant coming out of his left eye. His mother, Aqua, brought him in to the physician who diagnosed him eventually sadly with retinol blasto. And I say sadly because retinol blastto is a type of cancer in the eyes that is rare but aggressive. So by the age of three to save his life little Ben had to have both his eyes removed because the cancer was actually in both eyes. Now suddenly at 3 years old Ben's world became completely dark.

[00:01:08]He had siblings. He was growing up. But instead of it being a dependent life that had limitations and possibly fear, it was the complete opposite. And if you watch his mother being interviewed, you can see why. This lady is just amazing and positive.

[00:01:30]Said, we don't even use the word blind in our family. He can do whatever he wants to do. And I always told him that and taught him from being a toddler on that he could do whatever he wanted to do. So let me tell you the things that he became successful at. Ben because of his outgoing and positive personality, he had a lot of friends. He participated in everything that he wanted to do. He played basketball with his friends. He rode a scooter with his friends. He rode a skateboard with his friends. He did everything that other kids do. He played video games. He did all the activities, social and sports related just like everybody else his age as he became 6 7 8 9 10 12. He was like everybody else and his friends loved him. When you hear the interviews from his friends, they adore him and they don't even think of him as being blind. They just think of him as them. We've already established that most of Ben's resilience and strength, inner strength, and the ability to see himself as a very strong individual who can conquer anything.

[00:02:42]That came from his beautiful mother, Aqua.

[00:02:46]But Ben also had it in him to think about how can I make things even better for myself? How can I do it for myself, nobody else's help? So, he wanted even more out of life. He wanted to walk outside and find where his mother's car was without her telling him where the car was. For example, so Ben went to camp each year. And one year in camp when he was young, he learned how to click his tongue in a way that created echolocation.

[00:03:18]So bats use echolocation and dolphins and some whales and other animals use echolocation. He learned how to do this and hear that clicking sound bounce off certain areas where he could walk into a stranger's home or a friend's house for the first time and find the kitchen cuz he knew what a kitchen sounded like. He could walk outside and find which car was his or his mother's. He could participate in sports in a safer way. He was just amazing. So he was really known for learning echolocation and being able to use it in every part of his life. He could even use it outside and know that he was under a tree or that he was coming up at the end of a certain type of street. It was just amazing.

[00:04:08]This is similar to another individual who was completely blind due to glaucoma and his name is Ray Charles. I'll put some pictures up. He's very famous or was very famous. He has since passed away. But Ray Charles was somebody who played instruments, somebody who sang, who knew everything about music, didn't have to read the music to learn the music, but he learned a different type of echolocation with the bottoms of his feet with of his shoes because the bottoms of his shoes would have certain things on them that helped him hear the way the floor sounded. It sounded different on cement, outside, inside, wood, etc. And and echolocation really has to do with that, that sensation of this this um click or step bouncing off something, coming back to them, and giving them information. Most people rely so heavy on vision that they don't realize how much uh hearing can give them information. But Ben's brain adapted to this type of echolocation or human sonar and his world became even bigger. Truly, nothing could stop him.

[00:05:20]But a lot of how he made it through all of this is because of his positive, beautiful, loving attitude. He was just a kind, human, beautiful person. And when you listen to his mother, you certainly can see where he got this from. His mother wrote a book and I will list it below.

[00:05:42]And let me give you the book title.

[00:05:45]Okay. Mom's book title is called Echoes of an Angel. And again, uh it's on Amazon. I'm sure you can find it in other places or indie bookstores could possibly order it for you, but I will list it below. And then I also was looking at my notes and wanted to share that one quote he said in an interview is that Ben said, "I'm not blind. I just can't see.

[00:06:07]He also said, "I speak visual."

[00:06:10]Just an amazing person. And when I say was, because sadly at the age of 15, Ben was flying back with his mother from Japan where apparently they were doing a documentary about him. I haven't looked up that information yet, but if I do, I will put it up here somewhere and give you that info. But when he was flying back, he experienced a terrible headache. He described it just as very, very painful. His mother got him in to the doctor and they discovered sadly that the retinol blastto that took his vision was now back. This type of cancer came back and it came back in his sinus area. So that was why one of his symptoms was these terribly painful headaches.

[00:06:59]He was on chemotherapy. He got started on life-saving measures, but it did not work for him. And his mother described it because of genetic results on Ben showed that he wouldn't respond as well to the chemotherapy, although they tried. His mother Aqua describes his dying process as no fear and that he taught her not only how to live but how to die. He also said that when the cancer came back and he was told about this, he continued with a positive attitude by saying, and I'm just going to paraphrase, I'm very tired.

[00:07:42]I'm going to just lay back and relax.

[00:07:46]And when his mother explained to him, but yes, this this tumor here and this time that it came back could mean that you're going to die, like she felt like you're taking it not seriously. And he said, I know it's okay. In 2009 at age 16 and a half, Ben Underwood passed away from retinol blasto in his home in California. Ben did get prosthetic eyes that he participated in as far as picking them out and and adjusting to them. He did very well. And um which leads me to another child who is named Logan Dorna. And Logan is from Toronto, Canada. He is 8 years old right now. And he also had retinol blast and had one eye removed when he was a toddler.

[00:08:36]He participated in not just picking out his prosthetic eye, but designing, asking them to design what he wanted.

[00:08:44]And this is what his looks like. Okay.

[00:08:47]Logan, sweet little Logan said, "I wanted to get the special eye because I like playing baseball and I like watching it, too." Oh, and by the way, he was six months old. Six months old when he got uh diagnosed with retinol and he's age eight now. Retinol blasto is not common. It's stated as being a rare cancer of the eyes. But working pediatrics most of my whole career we saw it. We saw it. It was just another type of cancer that we saw on a regular basis. But that's cuz we were in the hospital. That's where they came.

[00:09:25]So, if you ever see eyes in a child or baby that seem unusual, um that that you're just curious about, this doesn't look right, there might not be any symptoms from that baby or toddler. It's always good to go in and see a provider and get it checked out just in case.

[00:09:43]Learning from Ben's case, scientists, researchers were really fascinated with his case because it shows that the brain is not fixed. It adapts. that if you teach the brain with one of the senses, if you are lacking in one, the brain can adapt and other senses can step in. What made Ben's story so powerful was not that he just lived as a blind young man.

[00:10:09]It was that he adapted and he thrived and he had a beautiful life. He participated in so many things that made him happy. There was no holding him back and his positive attitude and friendship was shared with so many people. He made such a difference in their lives and their lives are better for having known him. Most people spend their lives thinking that sight is really the only way to truly understand the world. But Ben showed everyone that there are other ways that you can adapt and there aren't limitations unless you put them on yourself. My name is Lisa. I'm a registered nurse and I like to share stories that are uplifting. Some of them are a bit down, but most of them have some type of story that we can learn from, some kind of message that we can learn from. That's why I also do book reviews on books that physicians have written, that patients have written, and how they get through difficult times. I also do case studies that are very interesting and ongoing. Anyway, if any of this sounds interesting to you, please consider subscribing, and I'll see you with the next health video.