He is a basketball player, a track athlete, and a varsity show choir performer. He is also a honor roll student and treasurer of the sophomore class. So, when you’re involved in all of these activities, and you hear that you might lose your sight in your right eye, you obviously need to take action.

Sophomore Jacob Hocking’s challenge started with a routine eye appointment last October. “I was not expecting anything to be wrong going into the appointment,” said Hocking, “but once they said I needed to go to Iowa City, I knew something was seriously wrong.”

Hocking’s eye doctor did not understand why the scans on his right eye were not showing up clearly, so he sent him to the Iowa City Hospital’s optometrist.

There he was diagnosed with Keratoconus, which means that Hocking’s eye was starting to bulge outwards because it is losing cells and tissues. Hocking cannot feel any pain currently, but it will affect his eye and eyesight in the future.

Hocking will need surgery to fix this problem before he loses his eyesight permanently. The surgery will keep his eye from pointing outwards by putting a coating over top.

“Once the doctors put the coating on, they will burn it into my eye so it will stay on and keep the problem from getting worse,” Hocking said.

The surgery will take place on March 26th over spring break, so he will have time to recover. Hocking who is currently active in track, said he will be looking forward to getting back out on the track as soon as possible.

“I can’t run or do any physical activity for 2 to 3 days. After the surgery, everything I see will just be blurry for a month or so; then everything will go back to normal, hopefully,” he said.

The only problem is, the surgery is very expensive. It will cost $4,600 for the surgery, and then he will need specialized contact lenses that will cost $2,500.

Hocking’s family has started a funding account to help out with the expenses. You can help by donating any amount to the Go Fund Me linked below.

https://www.gofundme.com/jacob-s-medical-expenses