Twice unlucky for former Penticton radio personality

PENTICTON – A former Penticton radio personality is recovering in a Calgary hospital following treatment for a second detached retina in four months.

Dennis Walker is the former host of SO Country Internet Radio in Penticton. He took on a new position at Clear Sky broadcasting in Cranbrook in 2015 but is still well known in the Penticton area.

Walker was rushed to Calgary’s Rocky view Hospital on April 2 following detachment of the retina in his right eye.

“I was at work on the radio April 1 and thought I had something in my eye. It seemed like a curtain had fallen across it. I kept trying to get out whatever was in there,” Walker says.

He went to his optician where within two minutes Dr. Eryn Zorn told Walker, “We have to get you to Calgary.” He made an emergency trip where he was treated and released in late April.

Walker hasn’t yet fully recovered from that surgery but late last week his left eye started acting up.

“It was the same signs again. I thought it couldn’t be.”

A visit to the doctor resulted in a similar diagnosis and a second emergency trip to Calgary for another surgery.

“It was a long day in emergency. It’s Stampede week, and they were packed in there. I hope I’ll be as fortunate with this one as I was with the first eye,” Walker says, adding he is still experiencing some ‘curvy vision’ in that eye. “It takes at least four months to heal. It’s too soon to tell anything about my left eye."

Walker says he asked the surgeon what he was doing wrong.

“I never banged my head. This type of thing happens to boxers. I’ve always had poor eyesight – pop bottle lenses that sort of thing but the doctor said sometimes when you’re over 50 these things happen,” Walker says.

“It’s awfully frightening, to think you could lose your vision, not once, but twice.

Walker can’t return to Cranbrook due to the topography between Calgary and British Columbia.

“To make a detached retina heal, they stick a gas bubble in your eye. That puts pressure on the eye to force the retina to attach, but you can’t fly, travel through the mountains, or climb elevations above 2,000 feet for fear of bursting that bubble. It can take up to three months for it to evaporate,” Walker says, adding the last time he was able to travel after 17 days.

Walker says he doesn’t know if he should be buying lottery tickets or not.

“Who gets two of these? I’ve been on radio 38 years and never phoned in sick, but this year’s blown that all to heck.”

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