A toddler may never see out of his left eye again after he was stabbed in the face seven times with a broken bottle.
Provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the boy, 2, was referred to Frere Hospital from Butterworth on Saturday.
Kupelo said according to the information they had received, the boy had been on his grandmother’s back in the Butterworth village of Tanga at the time of the alleged attack.
Her boyfriend allegedly broke a bottle over the grandmother’s head and fragments fell on the boy’s face.
The man then allegedly proceeded to attack the boy with the broken bottle.
Kupelo said the child’s 19-year-old mother was not at home when the incident happened.
Attempts to get hold of the child’s mother were unsuccessful at the time of writing yesterday.
“He was admitted with multiple stab wounds, a total of seven lacerations on the left side of his face,” said Kupelo.
He added that the boy had a unit of paediatric blood transferred during his hospital stay.
Kupelo said the child had cuts to the upper and lower lids of his left eye and a perforation of the cornea on the same eye.
Paediatric surgeons from Frere Hospital managed to stitch the wounds on his face and an ophthalmologist dealt with the eye. “The doctors are trying to save the cornea. If not, then the boy will never see again from that eye.
“It will be known by the end of the week if the eye can be saved or not,” Kupelo said.
Dr Milind Chitnis, head of paediatric surgery at both Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals, said he had never seen anything like it in his 25 years of service there.
“That another human being could do this to a child – it was horrifying,” he said, describing the extent of the seven wounds he had stitched.
Chitnis said because he was not an ophthalmologist, he could not say for certain if the child would be able to see out that eye again or not.
The baby had been transferred from Frere to CMH to make use of more specialised equipment for the eye surgery he underwent yesterday.
Chitnis said the baby was “happy and smiling” in a ward at CMH yesterday despite having been stabbed in the eye.
He said the baby’s face was almost healed.
“Children heal fast – all we need to do is support them,” he said.
Kupelo said there was no indication at this point if a case had been opened with police or not.
Police spokesman Captain Jackson Manatha said he was not aware of the incident.
Without a case number he was unable to confirm or comment on the matter as this would be “hearsay”. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
Baby, 2, may lose eye after attack
Provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the boy, 2, was referred to Frere Hospital from Butterworth on Saturday.
Kupelo said according to the information they had received, the boy had been on his grandmother’s back in the Butterworth village of Tanga at the time of the alleged attack.
Her boyfriend allegedly broke a bottle over the grandmother’s head and fragments fell on the boy’s face.
The man then allegedly proceeded to attack the boy with the broken bottle.
Kupelo said the child’s 19-year-old mother was not at home when the incident happened.
Attempts to get hold of the child’s mother were unsuccessful at the time of writing yesterday.
“He was admitted with multiple stab wounds, a total of seven lacerations on the left side of his face,” said Kupelo.
He added that the boy had a unit of paediatric blood transferred during his hospital stay.
Kupelo said the child had cuts to the upper and lower lids of his left eye and a perforation of the cornea on the same eye.
Paediatric surgeons from Frere Hospital managed to stitch the wounds on his face and an ophthalmologist dealt with the eye. “The doctors are trying to save the cornea. If not, then the boy will never see again from that eye.
“It will be known by the end of the week if the eye can be saved or not,” Kupelo said.
Dr Milind Chitnis, head of paediatric surgery at both Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals, said he had never seen anything like it in his 25 years of service there.
“That another human being could do this to a child – it was horrifying,” he said, describing the extent of the seven wounds he had stitched.
Chitnis said because he was not an ophthalmologist, he could not say for certain if the child would be able to see out that eye again or not.
The baby had been transferred from Frere to CMH to make use of more specialised equipment for the eye surgery he underwent yesterday.
Chitnis said the baby was “happy and smiling” in a ward at CMH yesterday despite having been stabbed in the eye.
He said the baby’s face was almost healed.
“Children heal fast – all we need to do is support them,” he said.
Kupelo said there was no indication at this point if a case had been opened with police or not.
Police spokesman Captain Jackson Manatha said he was not aware of the incident.
Without a case number he was unable to confirm or comment on the matter as this would be “hearsay”. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
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