Charisse Brown, a 38-year-old Columbia, S.C., resident, talks about her journey with glaucoma and keratoconus, which led to vision loss in her left eye. Underinsured and not qualifying for Medicaid, she had to search for a local nonprofit to pay for her sight-saving surgeries. (Photo by Nada Hassanein/Stateline)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — It’s as if she’s squinting through a smoke-filled room. But it’s Charisse Brown’s eye condition, glaucoma, that diminishes her vision.
Brown, 38, has worked all her adult life, with a personal policy of keeping two jobs at once. But when she started losing sight in her left eye last year, she was forced to quit her call center job. That left her with one income stream, her marketing research job, to pay her $1,300 monthly rent and other bills…