When Ramesh Dhere (name changed) set out to caution a child against the dangers of playing with a sharp and pointed object, little did he know that he would accidentally end up poking his own four-year-old daughter in the eye with a pencil.
Dhere, a Pune resident, was telling a little girl not to play with a long pointed pencil, but the girl would not listen to him. So he forcibly snatched it from her. “Unfortunately, he did not notice his own daughter Sonia standing behind him at the time,” said Dr S Natarajan, retina surgeon and director of Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital, Wadala. “The tip of the pencil poked her in the eye leading to a penetrating injury in the cornea.”
Sonia has undergone two surgeries and may require multiple surgeries later to save her eye. “We see approximately 60 cases of children with eye injuries every year either caused by factory accidents, sticks, firecrackers, holi colours,” said the surgeon.
Initially, the corneal and sclera tear caused by the stick was repaired in a Pune hospital. The Dheres brought Sonia to Mumbai for treatment 10 days later. “On examination it was discovered that the child had developed a cataract in her right eye, and there was collection of blood in the posterior part of her eye,” said Natarajan.
Doctors then performed a combined surgery to remove the cataractous lens and also to perform a vitrectomy using a special microscope and the state-of-the-art constellation machine, which enables doctors to remove collected blood.
“However, the neuro-sensory layer of the eye is detached. So she may need another surgery where silicon oil will be inserted in the eye to push the retina back in its place,” explained Natarajan.
