Boy's eye damage from laser pen prompts surgeon's warning

A boy has been left with permanent eye damage after playing with a laser pen, prompting a plea from his surgeon not to buy them as toys.

Harry, 11, lost his central vision earlier this year, with tests showing extensive damage to his retina.

The youngster has been having monthly injections in his eye to help restore vision, but it may never fully return.

Aabgina Shafi, consultant paediatric ophthalmologist, said parents should not let their children use them.

Miss Shafi, who has been treating Harry at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, said four other children across Yorkshire were currently undergoing treatment for the similar damage from laser pens.

She said the damage caused by such devices could lead to blindness or an irreversible injury, like in Harry's case, which would require life-long monitoring.

Although it's a criminal offence to shine a laser at a moving vehicle, it is legal to sell and own laser pens in the UK.

However, many that are within the legal limit don't conform to EU safety standards and some are more powerful than the label suggests.

Miss Shafi said: "Quite often children like the fact that you can point these lasers at balloons and make the pop.

"But in the same way, if you point it at the eye you make a layer of the eye which is protective against anything going into it, pop too."

Miss Shafi added: "We have four children in Yorkshire right now, who have the same problem like Harry does, and it breaks my heart because all it takes is to not buy these pens in the first place."

Harry's vision deteriorated in May to the point he couldn't see the ball when playing cricket at school.

The youngster, from Horbury, said: "It was getting really difficult to see things from my eye. It was just really blurred with a dark circle in the middle."

His parents took him to the optician and was told he needed to be seen at hospital. After several tests, it became apparent what had caused the damage.

Mum Lisa, a children's safeguarding nurse advisor, said: "Miss Shafi found there had been some UV damage and asked whether he had been exposed to a solar eclipse, whether he'd been looking at the sun for too long or whether he'd ever played with lasers.

"He has a laser pen so after that all the pieces started to fall into place with the timeline."

As well as the injury to his right eye, tests showed his left eye has also been damaged although his vision from that one has not yet been affected.

So far, Harry has had several injections into his eye but his mum said his vision "had not returned to normal by any stretch".

She added: "He's still unable to see halfway down the eye test and that's after three surgeries and we don't know if that will get any better over time."

Harry's mum, who bought the laser pen online, has urged other parents not to make the same mistake.

"They're not worth your child going blind for. Harry could be potentially affected for the rest of his life and it can impact on so much, his career, his ability to drive," she said.

"You're taking away so many future options for your children just by buying one of these."

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].