Professor Gregory Babel helps Rory Orwoll learn a new song in his beginner piano class.
Orwoll playing the piano. He can also play the bass and the guitar.
“They said, ‘Oh you’re not going to remember it, and if you do it’s only going to be a dream.’ No, that’s not how it worked. It hurt a lot. The entire time I could feel them cutting into my eye…It was pretty painful,” said Rory Orwoll, 18, concerning the latest surgery he had to attempt to restore his lost vision. Two times the doctors have removed a membrane that grows behind his left eye, the only eye he can see out of, and three times it has grown back, leaving Orwoll blind in his first year of college at the Hartt School of Music.
As Orwoll, a Plesantville, NY native, began the account of the problems he’s had with his sight, he said, “I’ve told the story thousands of times since coming here.” Although, he’s always had problems with his vision since he was born, including a right eye that never worked and calcium build up on his left eye that had to be surgically removed every so often, he was never completely blind until he was almost 17 years old.
“The summer before my junior year in high school I got a surgery to get a Kpro, which is a prosthetic cornea, which actually gave me the best vision I ever had. I didn’t need glasses. I always used to wear thick glasses. I still had bad vision, but it was the best I had seen in my entire life…It was nice not needing to wear glasses. I could see everything in detail, more so than I could before. That was pretty cool.”
What was supposed to be the cure to his bad vision, turned into what would be for anyone a waking nightmare: losing ones sight slowly over a six month period of time. Orwoll decided not to go sight seeing after he got the Kpros, because he had no idea things would take a turn for the worse. “I didn’t expect at all to lose my sight, so I didn’t see the rush,” said Orwoll.
“Then sometime in late Dec., early Jan., scar tissue from that surgery started causing my retina to detach. In early March of that year, I got a surgery to try to reattach my retina, which worked except after that surgery I still couldn’t see because my eye filled with blood and debris and a membrane grew behind my cornea.
“So then in either June or July, I had another surgery to get that removed then after that surgery another membrane grew behind my cornea. I think the doctors think that if they can remove it, it shouldn’t grow back again. I really lost my sight a little more than a month before I turned 17.”
Neither Orwoll nor the doctors knew what was going on. “It happened slowly. I started noticing effects in Dec…then Jan. I started noticing it more. Over the course of Jan. and Feb. my vision slowly started to get worse. For a while the docs didn’t know why I was losing my vision,” said Orwoll.
After 10 eye surgeries, some done while he was still conscious, Orwoll lost some of his hope. During winter break, Orwoll went to see if he could get an 11th surgery to remove the membrane, but the doctors said his eye wasn’t ready yet. They said they might be able to perform an in-house surgery during spring break in just a little over a week.
Orwoll isn’t getting his hopes up. “I would have to get the operation and see how well my retina will work,” said Orwoll. After a retina is not in use for so long, it is not used to detecting light, so it will be a while after the surgery before any sort of real vision beyond light and dark is restored.
His friends feel differently.
Orwoll was sitting on a bench outside of B complex on a nice day whistling an interesting tune, when Kyle Burgman, 18, who was walking to his dorm, stopped to listen. Burgman complimented Orwoll on his whistling and introduced himself. That was five months ago and from then on, they have been best buds. Going to parties in the Village, hanging out in Burgman’s dorm, listening to classics like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and watching television together. “On Friday and Saturday nights, he’s my wingman. His story is an instant conversation starter,” said Burgman.
Burgman plans a big event for when Orwoll gets his sight back. “Once he gets his vision back. We’re going to give him a list of names and line up and have him guess who everyone is. There’s probably about 40 to 50 people on campus Rory knows well,” said Burgman, who predicts Orwoll will do better than what people think. Burgman continued, “He has a good way of gauging the race, gender, and body size of people based on the sound of their voice.”
People that know Orwoll describe him as an extremely witty and brilliant person. Hartt professor Gregory Babal said, “He has a great ear, but I have to treat him a little differently. I give the rest of these guys sheet music, but I have to walk Rory through it.” Babal continued, “He’s a really good student though.” During class, Babal placed his hands next to Orwoll’s on the keyboard. He spoke and played each note in the song and had Orwoll copy him until he could do it on his own.
UHart has helped Orwoll adjust to being blind; by using the facilities he’s become healthier and happier according to Burgman. “He’s gotten a lot better. Orwoll used to be really skinny. He’s eating more and working out almost everyday, which has helped him to put on weight. He’s in a good mood now,” said Burgman. The university also provides readers for Orwoll during tests and early registration so he can get his pick of classes.
“People are always giving you a lot more help than you need. At the same time, there are also times when I’m completely lost, no one is there and I’m like damn I wish someone was around to help. Beggars can’t be choosers. If you want some help, you got to deal with constantly getting help that you don’t need,” said Orwoll about needing help from others.
Orwoll thinks of himself as a typical student by starting out the morning just trying to wake up, then going to class and working out in the Sports Center with his best friend.
Orwoll is not currently in a band at UHa, but he talks about starting one to his friends all the time.
From here, Orwoll refuses to think small about his future and won’t let his lack of sight hold him back.
“I think my sister and I are going to move to Brooklyn and start a folk band, and a few years later we want to move to LA or somewhere in southern California,” said Orwoll in regards to his plans after he graduates from Hartt.
Although Orwoll tries to focus on the silver lining, his thoughts on the gift of sight makes us all a little more thankful for what we have. “Really the bad thing is about going blind is not about the practical uses of seeing. I really could live with or without that. It’s enjoying the beauty in life that I miss.”