Physician, blind since birth, treats patients at Michigan hospital

Her struggle to become a physician has been hard-fought, but the battle continues For Dr. Matthewis as she leaves her residency in one month to find a full-time position

By From Ed Garsten
CNN Detroit Bureau Chief

LANSING, Michigan (CNN) -- Dr. Kristianna Matthewis can't see whether her patients look pale or if their eyes have a healthy sparkle.

She cannot see at all. Blind since birth, Dr. Matthewis is one of the very few blind physicians in the world.

Using a stethoscope and other traditional instruments, she can examine patients but requires help from a medical assistant for visual assessments.

"Do I always get the same information in the same way other physicians do? No," Dr. Matthewis said. "Do I usually come out and have the same idea about what's going on as the other doctors? Sure."

In her final month of residency at Lansing's 502-bed Sparrow Hospital, Dr. Matthewis has traveled a tortuous, frustrating path -- and it's not over. It started with the struggle to find a medical school that would accept her.

"I mailed out 60 applications, and I got 51 of them back saying they would not admit a blind person -- hands down," she recalled.

She received her degree from the medical school of the University of Colorado.

Her blindness didn't present a problem for Dr. George Smith, director of residents at Sparrow Hospital. He accepted her without reservation.

"She may not be seeing with her eyes," he said, "but she's seeing with her hands, her touch and just her presence around patients. And I would submit that the level of awareness is just as strong as someone who can actually see things."

	VIDEO
CNN Detroit Bureau Chief Ed Garsten profiles a woman who pushed the limits to earn her medical degree. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Matthewis said she is not accepted by all of her colleagues and has some anxiety as she finishes her residency and looks for work as a fully trained physician. She said she has no expectations of assistance from the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law on July 26, 1990.

"Doctors in general think they're immune from the law," she said. "So when you sort of talk about disability law and wanting jobs, things like that, doctors -- what people are telling me -- they feel strongly they can convince a judge blind people shouldn't be allowed to have a job."

But Dr. Matthewis is used to reaching goals she can't see.

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