Patient Memorizes Eye Chart, Optometrist Plays Along for 20 Minutes Before Confrontation

Optometrist Dr. Iris Diopter allowed a patient to recite the entire Snellen chart from memory for approximately twenty minutes on Thursday before informing him that two letters on the fourth line had been changed since his previous appointment. 'He came in very confident,' Dr. Diopter reported. 'Sat in the chair, covered his left eye, and rattled off the chart with tremendous conviction. E, F, P, T, O, Z. Perfect. Too perfect. Nobody reads an eye chart that smoothly. People hesitate. People squint. This man was performing.' The patient, Gerald Cornea, 58, reportedly maintained his composure through the first seven lines before Dr. Diopter interrupted to point out that line four now reads D, E, F, P, O, T, rather than the D, F, P, O, T, E he had memorized. 'His face fell,' Dr. Diopter said. 'It was the face of a man whose entire strategy has collapsed. He tried to recover by claiming his eyes had gotten better since his last visit and he was now reading the chart accurately rather than from memory. I pointed out that he had read letters that are no longer on the chart. He asked if we could start over.' Cornea, who admitted to the memorization after further questioning, explained that he had been anxious about his prescription changing. 'Every year the numbers get worse,' he said. 'I thought if I could read the chart perfectly, the numbers would stay the same. I know that's not how optometry works. But it felt like it should be.' Dr. Diopter conducted a standard refraction and determined that Cornea's prescription had indeed changed. She has also rotated the chart for future appointments.