Unable to see clearly, Thomas struggled in school. As he entered adolescence, he was getting detentions for reasons he didn't want to talk about. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know why," his mother said. "Kids can be cruel."
And then, one October morning in 2007, like the answer to Ristine's prayers, the Eagles Eye Mobile rolled up to Penn Treaty Middle School, in Fishtown.
It was making its annual rounds to dozens of Philadelphia public schools, examining thousands of children like Thomas who had failed their state-mandated eye exam by the school nurse but had not received follow-up care.
As the national debate over lack of adequate health care for millions of Americans rages on, the Eagles Eye Mobile has examined 26,000 low-income schoolchildren since 1996 and provided free eyeglasses to the 75 percent who needed them.
The Eye Mobile served 3,351 kids last year, providing 2,352 with prescription eyeglasses and referring 369 for further treatment, including surgery.
The Eagles pay for the Eye Mobile exams and glasses. Longtime partner St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, and new partners Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Wills Eye Institute, arrange funding for surgery.
Thomas was one of 14,000 Philadelphia schoolchildren who fail the mandatory school-eye exam every year but whose vision problems go untreated. Why?
"My health plan at work said there wasn't anything they could do for Thomas' eye," Ristine said. "They acted like it was cosmetic."
Ristine said her employee health plan allowed Thomas to visit the eye doctor and get new glasses only once every two years.
"So if he needed a different prescription because his vision was getting worse, my health insurance didn't cover that," she said.
