DO Student Lights the Way With Children’s Book on Personal Glaucoma Experience

June 26, 2026

While many fourth-year medical students are focused on board prep this summer, Wendee Duong (DO ’ 27), a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) student at PCOM Georgia, is busy balancing her studies with a milestone of a different kind—the release of her first children’s book, The Lantern in My Eyes, inspired by her own experience living with glaucoma since age 10.

“The story demonstrates how caring for your health is a sign of bravery,” she said. “Because I adhered to treatment and have not experienced vision loss, I hope it reminds children that caring for their eyes today can help preserve their vision for the future.”

In the book, a young girl tends to her lantern—her vision—as a metaphor for adhering to glaucoma medication to help preserve vision. The lantern's light symbolizes peripheral vision, with its gradual dimming representing the progressive vision loss caused by glaucoma. Incorporating elements of Duong’s Vietnamese heritage, the story is set during the Mid-Autumn Festival and features an original Moon Dragon who inspires the main character to adhere to her treatment.

The literary project was a collaborative effort between Duong and fellow members of the Arts in Medicine Club, which she co-founded at PCOM Georgia, including co-writer Chloe Pak (DO ’ 27) and co-illustrator Anuksha Gotmare (DO ’ 29), with contributions from Annie Nguyen, a California high school student, and Dagny Zhu, MD, a California-based ophthalmologist who served as the project’s medical advisor.

“My experience with juvenile glaucoma impacted more than just my eyesight,” Duong said. “While treatment helped preserve my vision, music and art became outlets for the loneliness and uncertainty that came with my diagnosis. Looking back, I realize that healing was about more than just the physical; it involved emotional resilience, too, and that is what this book is all about.”

As she enters her fourth year of medical school, Duong hopes to one day provide children with the same encouragement and compassion she received as a patient.

“My pediatrician and ophthalmologist inspired me to pursue medicine,” she said. “As a first-generation college student, their encouragement shows me that becoming a physician is possible. I hope to inspire the next generation to do the same.”

With that goal in mind, Duong was recently invited to return to her former elementary school to read The Lantern in My Eyes to local students.

All proceeds from book sales support children in purchasing stickers for the medical adherence calendar included in the back of the book.

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