Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 2 | October 2018

E Y EI N G Her Interestingly, Dr. Johnson and Dr. McClintock have no concrete evidence as to what caused the detached retinas in Mitchell’s eyes. Even though she plays volleyball, she told them that she never really had taken a ball to the face and never had fallen and hit her head, or anything like that. The two doctors speculated that she probably suffered the injuries while in the womb, chalking them up to being birth defects. Her mom mentioned to Dr. McClintock that Mitchell had a twin sister, Rhana, who also played on Tech’s volleyball team, and he encouraged her to have Rhana see an eye doctor immediately. Sure enough, Rhana needed surgery on her retinas, too, but she only needed laser surgery—a much less invasive procedure—to fix the small holes in her retinas. “He thinks that maybe our retinas didn’t form right in the womb,” Rhegan said. “I’m also really near-signed, and that could be an effect, too.” The lone question remaining after Rhegan’s surgery centered around a possible return to the court. Dr. McClintock, as expected, wanted her to wait several weeks and urged her to wear protective goggles once she returned. They agreed upon a mid-October target date for a return to practice. Virginia Tech volleyball player Rhegan Mitchell went through a vision-related scare two years ago, but surgery has her seeing things both on the court and with regard to her future with much better clarity by Jimmy Robertson inside.hokiesports.com 35 Continued on page 36