By Crikey reporter Lucy Morieson

Is Iraq captive Douglas Wood really going blind? Last Friday The Age ran a front page story by Brendan Nicholson which claimed Wood’s vision had been reduced “to about 5 per cent, making it difficult for him to move around his home unaided.” Nicholson quoted a family spokesman who said that a lack of treatment for his diabetes and glaucoma during his 47 days in the hands of Iraqi kidnappers had left him almost blind, while severe rheumatoid arthritis that had “reduced his movements to a shuffle.”

An ABC Onlinereport backed up Nicholson’s story, naming Phil Quin as the spokesman employed by the family to field media enquiries, and quoting him saying “his peripheral vision is nil.” Quin confirmed that Wood can see directly in front of him “but the estimates are that his eyesight is reduced to about 5 per cent or so.”

Then on Sunday came this report in the Sunday Herald Sun, featuring a strong denial of the health problems alleged in the Nichoslon report. In fact, Nick Papps quoted Wood, who had drunk the bar dry near his home in California, saying the reports were “complete rubbish” and reading the gridiron scores from a television 5m away. Despite having to rely on a walking stick to cope with his arthritis, Wood insisted he was “bloody good,” and told the Hun he wanted to get back to Iraq to thank the Iraqi colonel who saved him from his captors.

So who’s right? When Crikey contacted Nicholson and Quin this morning, both stood by their stories. Nicholson backed up his report by quoting at length from his records of interviews with members of Wood’s family, confirming his eyesight had seriously deteriorated.

And Quin, the Wood family spokesman, said Nicholson’s report on the state of Wood’s health was “entirely accurate.” Quin described the Hun report as “misleading,” and based on misleading questions. According to Quin, Wood refuted claims that he is “legally blind” because he isn’t. His sight, however, has profoundly deteriorated. Quin says it’s possible he could have read the scores from a TV five metres away if it was directly at eye-level, because it’s his peripheral vision that’s the most damaged.

Quin also blamed Wood’s reticence about his health problems on the social setting of the interview, saying there was “a bit of bravado going on,” especially as Wood was speaking in the company of mates. He said Wood’s chin-up attitude was typical seeing as he’s “of that generation where he wants to downplay his health problems.”

As for the details about drinking the bar dry, Quin described it as a case of “beat-up.com.au”. Any US bar would stock “no more than a six-pack” of Fosters, so it’s hardly a difficult task to drink the bar out of the Australian beer.