Born Without an Eye | Unilateral Anaphthalmia & The Disability Spectrum
Sickboy
CBC
4.8 • 524 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
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Summary
What happens when you’re born with a medical anomaly so rare that doctors treat you like a "cluster of defects," but you grow up feeling completely able-bodied? This week, the boys sit down with Kayla, who was born with unilateral anaphthalmia. Which is a fancy way of saying she was born without one of her eyes. But the "missing eye" is actually the least wild part of this story. Kayla takes us deep into the "Wild West" of 90s medicine, where she underwent six major facial surgeries between the ages of six months and ten years - all without anesthesia because doctors back then didn't think babies could feel pain. (Spoiler: They definitely can). We dig into the "cutthroat" nature of the disabled community, the struggle of being "not disabled enough" for resources but "too different" for the able-bodied world, and how a "that really emo haircut" became the ultimate survival tool.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's becoming pretty clear that U.S. President Donald Trump is ripping up the political |
| 0:05.3 | playbook. |
| 0:05.8 | And when it comes to what it all means for Canada, well, as they say, it's complicated. |
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| 0:13.8 | Join me, Willie Lowry, and senior Washington correspondents, Paul Hunter and Katie Simpson |
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| 0:22.1 | with a Canadian spin. |
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| 0:30.3 | This is a CBC podcast. |
| 0:33.1 | I feel like the disabled community is like the most cutthroat community because they always challenge you. |
| 0:40.1 | It's like, well, how disabled are you? |
| 0:42.2 | Like, can you imagine if like you're in a different community, not the disabled community? |
| 0:46.4 | Let's say you're like in the LGBT community. |
| 0:48.8 | It's like, how many dicks do I need to suck to prove that I'm gay? |
| 0:53.8 | All right. Do I need to suck to prove that I'm gay? |
| 1:01.4 | All right. All right. |
| 1:01.4 | Let's get into it. |
| 1:02.5 | We are sitting with her new friend Kayla. |
| 1:05.1 | And Kayla, you have something I've never heard of before. |
| 1:11.6 | It's called unilateral. |
| 1:13.2 | Unilateral anophthalmia. |
| 1:17.3 | Close enough. |
... |
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