Boy blinded
The mother of a 9-yearold boy blinded in one eye after being shot in the face with a slingshot wants others to be aware of the damage they can do.
A 9-year-old boy has been blinded in one eye after being shot in the face with a slingshot at school.
Nicola Taylor said her son, Kane Robinson, was shot in the eye while playing with other children at New River Primary School, Invercargill.
Now she wants parents to be aware of the damage the weapons can inflict.
On December 11, she received a call to inform her of the incident but didn’t realise the extent of the damage until she arrived to collect him.
‘‘I got down there and took one look at him and it was absolutely huge, he couldn’t even open his eye and he was going in and out of consciousness. We had to keep waking him up.’’
Taylor said she was disappointed in the way the school had responded to the incident.
‘‘They rang me and I went down. It sounded like he just had a bit of a sore eye, from the phone call. They did say he should probably get down to the hospital to be seen.’’
The board of trustees, in a statement, said the school had sincere concerns for Kane’s wellbeing.
School staff members were unaware a slingshot had been brought to the school and it is in conflict with the school’s health and safety policy.
‘‘The board and staff were all devastated about the incident that happened to Kane.’’
Staff offered to take Kane to the hospital, but Taylor opted to pick him up, the statement said.
Principal Elaine Mccambridge said the morning interval started at 11.15, and Kane was injured shortly after this.
Taylor was called at 11.20am, and she declined the offer of staff taking him to hospital, which would have taken two minutes, Mccambridge said.
Kane was quickly assessed at the hospital, and Taylor was warned her son may lose his eye.
Kane is developmentally delayed and experiences seizures, factors that complicated his treatment.
‘‘Because of his epilepsy and his other medical conditions, it was too risky to operate then and there.’’
Instead, he had to return to the hospital daily until December 23, and has been on ‘‘complete bed rest’’ in the school holidays.
On Boxing Day the family travelled to Dunedin Hospital for further assessment but Kane was immediately rushed into surgery.
‘‘They took one look at him and went: we need to operate now or he will lose his eye,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘The surgery went well and they actually managed to save his eye. Whether he gets any sight back is a different story.’’
She wanted to warn other parents of the dangers of slingshots.
‘‘I don’t want another child to go through this ... and for parents to be aware of these weapons in their homes.’’
She didn’t know how the other boy obtained the weapon.
Staff were ‘‘at no time’’ aware of the presence of the slingshot on its premises, the board statement says.
Kane’s treatment would continue for ‘‘the next few years’’ with further surgery and ‘‘quite a lot of hospital visits’’, Taylor said.
‘‘The surgeon down here that first saw him ... said: me and Kane are going to become best mates because he’s going to spend a lot of time in here.’’
The police had been contacted, Taylor said.
A police spokesperson said police filed a report of the incident, and had spoken to both young people involved and their parents
The spokesperson said Police Youth Aid had been advised, and there would be no criminal liability because of the child’s age.
The school had informed Worksafe and the Ministry of Education, the board statement says.
It was concluded that the school could not have had preplanned health and safety procedures for this situation.
Kane has been enrolled in a new school this year.