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Probe after boy’s eye “glued” shut

by
24 June 2008

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A treatment centre run by a private firm is being probed after a 14-month-old toddler was left unable to open his eye when a nurse accidentally glued it shut.

Archie Harris went for treatment at St Mary’s Treatment Centre, in Milton, for a cut on his head after a fall at nursery.

But his family, from Portsmouth, claim when a nurse at the NHS-funded clinic tried to seal the wound, a large amount of glue ran into Archie’s left eye.

Despite trying for two hours, the eyelid could not be opened and the toddler eventually had to have a general anaesthetic in hospital where doctors managed to prise open the eye.

Mother Wendy Duff told the Portsmouth News: “It was horrible. I was crying, and he was crying, and the nurse was telling me to sing to calm him down – but I wasn’t calm either.”

The boy’s 33-year-old father, Scott Harris, said he was “utterly disgusted” with his family’s treatment.

Care UK, which runs the clinic, said in a statement: “Care UK would like to express its sympathy to Archie Harris and his family for the obvious distress caused in this incident.”

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