Picture: An X-ray shows the key that penetrated toddler Nicholas Holderman’s eye when he was playing with the bunch
Keys are often given to children as playthings. They’re blunt, aren’t easy to swallow and make a jangly noise. The greatest danger is that they’ll get lost, right? Maybe not. Ask the Holderman family of Perryville in Kentucky, USA.
Chris and Staci Holderman’s children, Isaac (8), Caleb (5) and Nicholas (20 months), were playing in the lounge when a scream interrupted the boys’ laughter. Chris and Staci froze when they ran into the room.
The end of a key protruded from Nicholas’ right eye - it looked as if it had penetrated his eyeball.
“I’ll never forget that moment,” Staci says. “We had to ask his brothers to hold his hands so he couldn’t touch the key or try to pull it out.”
Emergency services flew Nicholas to hospital by helicopter - but doctors there hadn’t handled this kind of trauma before. “We weren’t prepared to do anything that could damage the eye permanently and decided to call an experienced eye surgeon,” one of the doctors recalls.
Four hours later a specialist arrived and Nicholas was rushed into surgery. Fifteen minutes later the specialist emerged with good news: Nicholas’ eyesight was fine, his eye hadn’t been torn and he’d suffered no brain damage.
“We were grateful to the surgeon but realised God had intervened and answered our prayers,” Chris says.
Dr Derek de Beer, an eye specialist at West Rand Eye Centre in Johannesburg, says Nicholas was lucky. “The key probably made a hole in the retina, missing the blood vessels and preventing the eye from tearing. The key missed the most critical parts, including the nerves, lens and macula, the part responsible for focusing. Nicholas is lucky he didn’t get an infection from dirt on the key.”
But he’s none the worse, has recovered completely and his eyesight is perfect, his parents say.
