Published: 14 July, 2008, 09:27
Edited: 14 July, 2008, 09:27
A newborn girl has been left partially blind after a blunder which saw glue dripped into her eyes instead of medication.
The baby, who hasn't been named, is suffering from corneal burns and currently has no vision in her left eye.
The mistake happened at a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk, reports Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The newpaper’s story says that the incident was the fault of a senior member of staff who poured glue into an empty eye medicine bottle and left it on a table.
She is reported not to have noticed when the bottle, which carried its original labels, disappeared after a couple of days. It was then placed into a fridge used for holding medicine.
Later a nurse was given the bottle to treat a four-day old baby whose eyes were slightly running, as sometimes happens with newborns.
The health workers only realised the mistake when the girl started screaming. It was then found that the substance administered to her eyes was silicate glue.
She was urgently taken to an ophthalmological hospital.
After a course of treatment the baby’s sight is recovering but a medical examination is yet to define the severity of injury.
The girl’s parents have applied to the Prosecutor’s Office.