Some people have accused cell phones of causing cancer with their radiation (even though they very likely do not) but in one family's case, a cell phone is actually credited with discovering a cancer diagnosis.
After snapping what turned out to be a lifesaving photo of his then-14-month-old son, a dad noticed that one of the baby's eyes looked very different than the other. After an internet search, baby Jaxson was on his way to the doctor. Within a month, he had been diagnosed with cancer and was beginning chemotherapy.
We can only imagine how scary it must have been to go from cell phone photo to cancer treatment so quickly but when Owen Scrivens noticed the white spot in his son's eye, he decided to do some research and discovered retinoblastoma.
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"There’d been nothing else wrong, although after we noticed the eye color he started to develop a bit of a squint," Scrivens told Metro.co.uk. "I looked through some old photos and you actually can see the point where it changes in late November."
After treatment, the family reports that the tumor has already shrunk to a third of the size, though it will never go away completely. The hope is that it will end up as a small, benign mass that will be monitored throughout Jaxson's life.
Scrivens says that Jaxson is sick for a few days following chemo, but that he bounces back quickly. "His sight is alright – they can’t do a proper eye test but from what they’ve found, he’s missing a bit of tunnel vision," Scrivens explains.
So often Googling medical concerns leads down rabbit holes full of worst case scenarios, but in this case, Scrivens' decision to see what the internet had to say very well may have saved his son's life. Thanks to a combination of cell phones and web searching, Jaxson's cancer was caught early. Thank goodness for modern technology!
Photo courtesy of GoFundMe.