A three-year-old girl diagnosed with retinoblastoma had her eye removed after her mother noticed unusual signs in her daughter's eye, first a white glow, followed by a black eye on a baby monitor.
Mother's Instinct Leads to Diagnosis
Kristen Draime, 29, a hospice social worker from Cleveland, Ohio, had noticed her daughter Miley's eye would occasionally drift. Initially, she put it down to a common lazy eye, but decided to take her to the paediatrician, who later referred Miley to an ophthalmologist. However, the first available appointment was months away.
During the long wait, Kristen noticed an unusual white glow in her daughter's eye. After searching online, she came across retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer. One of the most common signs is known as leukocoria, where the pupil can appear white instead of red in flash photographs, or cloudy or white in dim light.
Emergency Visit and Diagnosis
After reading more, she immediately checked on Miley and saw her left eye had gone completely black. Kristen and her husband, Andrew Draime, 38, rushed the three-year-old to a local paediatric emergency department.
Kristen said: “I was in shock. When I went deep diving into retinoblastoma, I found an article in the trenches about a mom seeing her daughter’s eye was black on the monitor, and it was a tumour.”
“After seeing ‘the glow’ meant retinoblastoma and seeing her eye black on the monitor, I felt a deep instinct that it was retinoblastoma for sure.”
Surgery and Treatment
Other than the white glow, Kristen said there had been “no obvious signs” something was seriously wrong with her daughter. After arriving at the emergency department, Miley was evaluated by medics who contacted the ophthalmologist on call. The ultrasound and thorough examination showed Miley's left eye was almost completely consumed by the tumour and would need to be removed.
The family was referred to ocular oncologist Dr Arun Singh at Cleveland Clinic's Cole Eye Institute, where Miley's eye was thoroughly examined under anaesthesia. Dr Singh confirmed that removal was the best option.
Dr Singh said: “Retinoblastoma has the highest cure rate of any childhood cancer. Removing the eye is the most common treatment because leaving it intact risks letting the cancer spread to the brain or elsewhere in the body.”
The youngster underwent the hour-long operation on November 21, 2025, at Cleveland Clinic Children's. A postoperative biopsy revealed she would also need chemotherapy due to the size and location of the tumour.
Recovery and Milestone
Miley began treatment with Cleveland Clinic Children's paediatric haematologist-oncologist Dr Stacey Zahler just before Christmas 2025. She went on to have six sessions of chemotherapy, completing her final treatment in May 2026. A month later, Miley rang the end-of-treatment Bravery Bell at Cleveland Clinic Children's, surrounded by family members and caregivers.
Kristen said: “Being able to watch my daughter ring the bell after everything she went through was magical. I will never stop being thankful that I get to keep my daughter in this world. She lost her eye - cancer is so unfair - it took that from her. But she gets to be here. She gets to live a normal life.”
Miley now has a permanent prosthetic eye after initially being given a temporary one following surgery. The small plastic disc is cosmetic and can be removed for cleaning, while also helping her eye socket maintain its shape.
Kristen said: “You wouldn’t know she’d had her eye removed. She does great navigating through life, and I can only occasionally tell she has one eye. It’s mind-blowing how well she is doing.”
