{"id":639581,"date":"2026-10-24T02:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T02:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639581\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T02:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T02:00:14","slug":"primary-school-teachers-emotional-journey-to-blindness-and-back-to-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639581\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary school teacher\u2019s emotional journey to blindness and back to sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gwenn Hebert, 38, woke one morning and saw nothing. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a massive grey, creamy colour,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Her partner was talking to her, telling her it was time to get up and ready for the day, and Hebert had to ask: \u201cAre you in the room? <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no shape. There\u2019s no colour. There\u2019s nothing. That\u2019s it, I\u2019m blind.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Eight months earlier, the newly-qualified primary school teacher at Te Uru Karaka Newtown Central School had noticed something wrong with her right eye: a greasy film she could never clear, no matter how many drops she used.<\/p>\n

Her optometrist diagnosed a cataract, a clouding of the eye\u2019s normally clear lens. It\u2019s a condition usually linked to older age, and Hebert said her doctors were surprised to see it in someone so young. <\/p>\n

\"Gwenn<\/p>\n

Gwenn Hebert after her operation. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

She believes years of steroid cream for eczema played a part, after small amounts were occasionally applied near her eyes when her skin was at its worst.<\/p>\n

By July, she had lost all sight in her right eye. Then the left one started to go.<\/p>\n

She was put on the waitlist for surgery but told it could take up to nine months.<\/p>\n

Blind Low Vision NZ estimates around 370,000 New Zealanders have some form of the condition, and more than 40,000 cataract operations are carried out here each year.<\/p>\n

Hebert adapted the best she could, opting to take the bus since she could no longer drive or bike to school. By August, she couldn\u2019t read the number on the bus when it pulled up.<\/p>\n

The hardest part was the classroom.<\/p>\n

\"Gwenn<\/p>\n

Gwenn Hebert back in the classroom. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen kids would write a story, I could not see what they wrote. They would come and show me, \u2018Miss, are you happy? Is that what I was meant to do?\u2019 And I had to be like, \u2018It\u2019s wonderful.\u2019 But inside I was dying a little.\u201d<\/p>\n

She eventually had to stop teaching while waiting for surgery. Due to the rapid loss of her eyesight, she was moved to the top of the waiting list. <\/p>\n

In late September, after three weeks of complete blindness, she went in for surgery. <\/p>\n

Normally, surgeons operate on one eye and wait several weeks before doing the second. Hebert, with 26 students waiting for her, asked whether both could be done at once and the surgeon agreed. <\/p>\n

When the dressings came off, the world came back \u201clike 4K\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I remember is I could see my partner. I was crying because it had just been months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hebert is now back in her classroom, and she says she couldn\u2019t have got through without the people around her, especially her partner and the staff at her school. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou need people around you. If you\u2019ve got a strong waka, then you\u2019re going to be sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch Gwenn\u2019s full story, including her first day back with her class, on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gwenn Hebert, 38, woke one morning and saw nothing. \u201cIt was just a massive grey, creamy colour,\u201d she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,134,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-639581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}