A SEVEN-year-old girl will see again - despite having nail glue mistakenly poured into her eye.
Karen Skidmore's right eye lid was glued shut after her mother, Michelle, accidentally treated her daughter's conjunctivitis with drops of Body Collection glue, used for sticking on false nails, instead of chloranphenicol eye drops.
In the split second it took 34-year-old Mrs Skidmore to realise her mistake, the damage was done.
Since the weekend accident, Mrs Skidmore and her husband, Andrew, have gently bathed Karen's eyelid with warm water, every 15 minutes, from the time she rose in the morning until she was put to bed at night.
"We have just been trying to get the eye open with warm water. We have not been able to use soap," said Mrs Skidmore.
A visit to the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, yesterday, produced the news the distraught parents had prayed for.
Mrs Skidmore said: "She is not blind. The retina has a scratch that should heal, hopefully. They looked into the eye and saw a scratch, probably caused by the glue. I'm over the moon, but I will not really begin counting my chickens until her eye is open.
"The nail glue packaging and the conjunctivitis eye drops are almost identical.
"They are both pointed bottles with nozzles on them and they are both lilac and pink," said Mrs Skidmore.
She realised her error as soon as she had squeezed the glue bottle instead of the eye medication, and released a drop.
"I thought the bottle felt a bit thick. I was thinking this when I realised my mistake," said Mrs Skidmore, of Rodney Close, Brotton, east Cleveland.
"I felt sick,'' she added.
Karen has another appointed to see an eye specialist at the hospital on Thursday, the beginning of what Mrs Skidmore believes could be a succession of visits.
Mrs Skidmore is warning other parents to carefully read packaging before dispensing medicines "because mistakes can easily happen".
As for her own nail care, she said: "I have just chucked out the bottle of nail glue - I'm back to biting my nails.
