Ipswich Hospital bosses have apologised after a one-year-old boy had one of his eyes glued shut during treatment at A&E.
Clayton Fisk was admitted to the hospital’s emergency department earlier this year after hitting his head on a bedside table, causing him to cut his eyebrow.
According to a letter of apology sent to Clayton’s mother Kayleigh after the incident, a doctor and a nurse treated the youngster for his injuries by attempting to glue the laceration around his right eyebrow with tissue glue.
Kayleigh, who is 30, claims the nurse managed to get her fingers stuck to Clayton’s cheek while she was treating him – and said glue had dripped onto his eyelashes and face, causing his eye to stick together. Medics attempted to wash the glue out of Clayton’s eye with saline solution, but some of it dried on his eyelids. Despite this, he was sent home only to return at around 11pm that evening after “screaming in pain” because his eye was so sore.
Ms Fisk said: “It was really bad because we just didn’t know what was being done. We didn’t think it wasn’t right that glue was in his eye. You could see he was in pain.
“When we took him home he started to scream and cry in pain so we had to take him back to A&E to get the rest of the glue washed out.
“What I don’t understand is why was this not done in the first place?”
She added: “It’s just ridiculous because they glued his eye shut and allowed him to go home and come back again. I’m also worried he might have suffered some lasting damage to his eye. I still don’t feel I’ve been given enough reassurance about this.”
Ms Fisk shared her concerns with the hospital’s Patient Advice and Liason Service (PALS) and received a letter back from medics apologising for the incident.
The doctor who treated Clayton said sorry and said it was not his best judgement. Hospital spokeswoman Jan Ingle added: “We are very sorry that this happened to Clayton when he came into us and we have carefully and thoroughly looked into all of the circumstances surrounding his care.
“In our letter to Clayton’s family we set out clearly the steps taken to ensure that the tissue glue used to treat Clayton will not be used near eyes again.
“All of our staff have been informed about this. If Clayton’s family still have concerns we would be more than happy to meet with them to discuss them.”
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