LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Jared Dey is from North Las Vegas but lives in Texas now. Ever since he found out he was losing his vision, he’s been crossing items off his bucket list, taking in sights across the country, and soon he’ll be back in Vegas to throw out the first pitch for his hometown Las Vegas Aviators.
“I’ve kind of been told that you can lose your vision at any time,” said Jared. “They don’t know when that is. They told me it can happen this very second, or it can never happen.”
Jared started having vision issues in 2020 and found out he had a detached retina. After two surgeries, the issues continued.
“Ended up back in the hospital and I was told I had stage four kidney failure,” he said. “While I was in the hospital, I woke up one day and realized I couldn’t see out of the eye they did the surgery on.”
Doctors told Jared he’d likely lose his vision completely in both eyes within six months.
Now, three years later, after dialysis and a kidney transplant from his wife, Jared’s still able to see somewhat out of his right eye, but he says things are getting a little blurrier every day.
“When I came out of dialysis and realized that my vision is bad, but it’s not completely gone, that’s what really set me on a mission to go, ‘You know what? You have time. It might not be a lot of time, or it might be a ton of time, but do the things that you want to do,’” he said.
First on that list was watching his wife walk down the aisle.
Since then, Jared has been crossing items off his bucket list, from Hawaii to the World Series and meeting country music stars.
Soon, Jared’s hometown Las Vegas Aviators are helping him cross another feat off his bucket list, when he throws out the first pitch at their game on July 20.
“I want everyone to know you don’t have to be sick, you don’t have to be going through something or be told you have only 6 months of vision to accomplish whatever you want to do,” said Jared. “Whether it’s skydive or open up a business or run a marathon… You don’t want to be on your final days going, ‘I wish I would’ve done that.’”
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