Off The Record
Toddler Faces Losing His Eye After Being Kissed By Someone
After her son acquired a crippling infection that caused him to lose his left eye, a distraught mother has advised parents to forbid friends and family from kissing their children.
A kiss from a friend spread the herpes virus to Juwan’s eyeball, causing the two-year-old to lose sight in the eye.
His cornea, the transparent outer layer in front of his eye, developed a 4 mm hole as a result of the blister that resulted.
Despite the greatest efforts of the medical staff, the damage was too great, and he lost his vision as a result of the several infections that followed this open wound.
To preserve what was left of the organ, doctors were ultimately compelled to suture his eyelids shut.
As they get ready for a difficult procedure to try to save the toddler’s vision, his family is now speaking out to help others escape the same tragedy.
When Juwan, who was 16 months old at the time, had what his parents initially thought was an eye infection in August of last year, his battle began.
The family sought assistance from their general practitioner, who prescribed antibiotics and sent them home.
Michelle Saaiman, Juwan’s Namibian mother, however, recalls the moment she realized it was something more severe.
“Two days later, we noticed that there was something seriously wrong with the eye. It looked like something was growing inside his eyeball,” she wrote on Facebook.
“We realised that he had no feeling in his eye, as he literally put his finger in his eye, scratching his eyeball, without even flinching.”
“It’s the most traumatic experience to look at your baby, and literally see a 4mm open wound in his eye.”
After several tests and inspections, it was determined that Juwan had a cold sore in his eye that was brought on by the herpes simplex virus.
Since neither of his parents tested positive for the virus, the physicians speculated that the youngster may have contracted it through a kiss from someone who had a fever blister, which is another name for a cold sore.
Mrs Saaiman said, “The herpes virus could, most likely, only have been transferred by someone who had an active blister, kissing our baby on, or close to the eye, or on his hand — which he later touched his eye with.”
The 36-year-old admitted to Metro that at first, she found the diagnosis hard to accept.
“I was literally looking at the doctor wondering whether it’s April 1, because I thought it was an April Fool’s joke,” she said.
Juwan’s infection took weeks for medical professionals to control, but by then, the eye damage was already done.
“By that time the herpes just caused so much damage to his cornea that he essentially just lost all feeling in the eye and he could not see anything. He was completely blind.”
“It meant the brain did not recognise the eye anymore and stopped sending signals to the eye. The gel later protecting the eye evaporated and the eye dried out.”
In order to repair the link between the eyeball and the brain, the family is now hoping that an impending operation to move nerves from his leg to his eye socket would go well.
Juwan may be eligible for a corneal transplant, which could restore his vision, if the nerve transfer is successful.
Mrs Saaiman said: “Whether any vision can ever be restored is unknown at this stage, but we have made peace with the fact that he could very well be permanently blind in his left eye.”
“Our main priority at this stage is just to save the eye itself and to prevent further infections.”
She encouraged parents to take action to keep their kids from going through what they did.
“I feel it necessary to make people understand why you should not kiss someone’s baby,” she said.
We’ve never been overly concerned about this, even though I’ve read it a thousand times. After all, what could really go wrong? False. I was completely mistaken.
The story’s lesson is to never let anyone kiss your child. It’s simply not worth the agony and damage produced by such a foolish virus.
Juwan’s parents have organized a campaign to help pay for their expenditures since they must take time off work to accompany him to specialists in neighboring South Africa.
According to some surveys, seven out of ten Britons suffer from cold sores at some point in their lives. Cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus.
Most individuals don’t have any problems with an unattractive active cold sore; the blister goes away on its own or with over-the-counter antiviral medicines.
However, because a baby’s immune system is still developing, a cold sore can be quite harmful.
Seizures and even death may result if it spreads untreated and starts to impact essential organs.
Parents are warned that a dangerous herpes infection is most likely to occur during the first four weeks of a baby’s life.
To lessen the risk of spreading the virus, adults with cold sores should avoid kissing their infant and practice proper hand hygiene when providing care.
According to the NHS, if a baby does get herpes from a parent or other adult, the symptoms may not be rash; instead, the kid may exhibit indicators like irritability or lethargy, not feeding, or a high temperature.
Given how rapidly young children can decline, parents are advised to take immediate action if they observe this.
For guidance, parents should speak with their GP or NHS 111.
They should dial 999 right away if the infant is unresponsive and floppy, hard to wake up, has trouble breathing, begins to moan, or if their tongue or skin turns blue.
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