Boy, 8, survives accident that shocked surgeons

IN a freak accident that horrified his parents and shocked doctors‚ eightyear-old Ryno van der Westhuizen fell while playing at his Johannesburg home‚ leaving a 5cm piece of metal from a door handle lodged just below his left eye.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital for urgent treatment.

“The fact that he survived unscathed and that the piece of metal caused no damage to his eye or brain is a miracle‚” Ryno’s mother‚ Jonet, said.

The accident happened last month‚ but the details have only just been released‚ now that Ryno is on the mend.

“A CT [computerised cross-sectional] scan showed the piece of metal had missed his brain by millimetres and had miraculously not caused any damage to nerves of his eye either‚” his mother said.

When he was admitted at Netcare Clinton Hospital‚ consultant neurosurgeon Dr Wiebo van der Meulen was already waiting for him. Van der Meulen was shocked. “You would expect catastrophic damage to the eye or the brain‚ but miraculously‚ scans showed no permanent damage to either,” he said. “He is a very lucky young boy.” The real challenge was to safely remove the metal object.

At Netcare Union Hospital‚ across the road‚ the object was removed in its catheterisation laboratory.

“The diagnostic imaging equipment is highly specialised‚” Van der Meulen said.

“If we had to take out the piece of metal from his eye without the aid of this equipment‚ there would have been a high risk of profuse bleeding‚ which could have caused irreparable damage.”

The surgery took an hour with four specialists.