Mary Ingalls Blindness: New Research Suggests Scarlet Fever Was Not to Blame

For fans of the TV show "Little house on the Prairie" the name Mary Ingalls may be a familiar one. The show was about the real life experiences of Laura Ingalls Wilder whose sister, Laura, went blind as a teenager because of scarlet fever, the story goes. However, now new research is questioning the truth to the story.

"I was in my pediatrics rotation. We were talking about scarlet fever, and I said, 'Oh, scarlet fever makes you go blind. Mary Ingalls went blind from it,'" said Dr. Beth Tarini who is co-author of the paper and , now an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan said to CNN. "My supervisor said, "I don't think so."

Over the course of ten years, Tarini and a group of researchers looked at old papers and letters from Laura Ingalls Wilder and studied Mary's illness and data on blindness in the 19^th century.

Wilder wrote an never published memoir "Pioneer Girl" and CNN reported that in the memoir there is no mention that Mary had scarlet fever the year that she went blind.

"She never says scarlet fever. She never says rash," Tarini said to CNN. From further research the team uncovered that there were reports of Mary having severe headaches and that her face was partially paralyzed.

"Finally, and perhaps the most important piece of evidence, in a letter Wilder wrote to her daughter, Rose, right before her book "By the Shores of Silver Lake" was published, she makes reference "some sort of spinal sickness". The letter also mentions that Mary saw a specialist in Chicago who said "the nerves of her eyes were paralyzed and there was no hope," reported CNN.

The researchers diagnosed that Mary had viral meningoenchephalitis which causes inflammation of the brain and can result in sight loss.

"When I'm in clinic," Dr. Tarini said to The New York Times, "and I tell parents their child has scarlet fever, I see their eyes widen. In my mind, it's no different than a strep throat with a rash, but the specter of history colors their reaction."

Proving that the vision loss of Mary still carries significance on parents who remember it.

"We're taught to find out what's wrong and give a patient a diagnosis," Dr. Tarini added to The New York Times, "but that's only one of the things the patient needs. If I say 'scarlet fever' and a mother is thinking, 'Mary Ingalls' then if I don't know to pull that out, I'm not doing my job." It matters to pediatricians if it matters to their patients."