What seemed like a minor injury during a daycare accident, quickly turned into an emergency and the worst day of this mum’s life.
In February last year, New Zealand based mum, Michelle received the phone call from her daughter’s daycare that every parent dreads – there had been an accident.
Michelle’s then four-year-old daughter Skyla had been playing outside when another child threw something at her face. What was thrown was unclear, Skyla says it was a rock, the daycare says it was a small toy airplane. Either way, Skyla was hit in the face and was now refusing to open her eye.
When Michelle went to pick her up, things didn’t seem too bad
“She just had her eye shut and she wouldn’t open it,” Michelle told Kidspot. “I couldn’t see any bruising or anything.”
Still, Michelle took her to her local GP to be sure but as Skyla wasn’t keen to open her eye properly for him either, she was referred on to an eye clinic.
“By the time we got in there it was quite late, about six in the evening,” Michelle said. “The doctor couldn’t get a very clear look because Skylar wasn’t letting him, but at the time he couldn’t see anything potentially serious.”
Michelle and Skyla were sent home with a follow-up appointment scheduled for two days later.
Skyla the day after her accident. | Image source: Supplied.
Skyla, though obviously still in pain, slept well that night and looked a lot better the next morning, she even opened her sore eye, which was now a bit red and purple from the injury.
The next day, however, when she woke up for her follow up appointment and Michelle started to get worried, her eyelid was swollen and even though she wasn’t complaining of pain, she definitely wasn’t herself.
Things went downhill fast
“We got in for her checkup, and the lady was a bit firmer with her than the previous guy,” Michelle explained. “So she got a good look, and from that moment, it was all on.”
“All of a sudden there was a room full of doctors and nurses and they told us she needed surgery right away because her eyeball was split and the iris was protruding through the split.”
Skyla after her surgery. | Image source: supplied.
It was a serious injury and one that only an expert could have determined. To a regular person Skyla’s eye didn’t look too bad, which is why it is so lucky that Michelle had gotten her daughter checked so quickly.
Things moved very fast as Skyla was rushed away for a five-hour surgery to save her sight.
“That day was a blur,” Michelle said. “Probably the worst thing in my life, having my tiny daughter being put under anaesthetic.
“I was allowed to go right in with her and be with her until she was asleep, and she fought all the way.
“Straight after the surgery, her surgeon came and explained how serious it was. He said that they had to cut the protruding iris a little bit, they had to cut it off and then they re-stitched the split right across the eye.”
Luckily the back of Skyla’s retina hadn’t sustained any damage, but losing part of her iris was going to affect her sight permanently.
Skyla with her patch. | Image source: supplied.
An ongoing recovery
More than a year on from the accident, Skylar has been going to lots of checkups and undergoing patching therapy, to strengthen her weaker eye.
She’s doing a little better now and there is room for it to continue to improve until she reaches about 10, but she’s not likely to ever get back to perfect vision.
Michelle is extremely grateful to the amazing team that has looked after her daughter.
A lesson for all parents
Michelle has tried hard not to blame the daycare for what happened because it was an accident, but she hopes parents can stress to their kids the importance of not throwing things because eye injuries are preventable.
The other big lesson from little Skylar’s injury is that all eye injuries need to be looked at by experts because what looks fine to us could actually be something serious.
This article was first published on KidSpot and republished on theAsianparent with permission.
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