One mother has issued a frightening warning to all parents after her two-year-old son has lost his sight, as doctors revealed that he had contracted herpes after an acquaintance kissed his eye.
Children and babies are naturally more susceptible to illnesses as their body develops, but there are still plenty of things that people don't realize are as dangerous as they are, leading to some potentially frightening scenarios.
One such of these happened to 36-year-old Namibian Michelle Saaiman and her son Juwan, as she has shared her horror story on Facebook alongside a warning to all other parents.
As shared by the Metro, Saaiman first noticed what initially appeared to be an eye infection in her son Juwan, who was one year and four months old at the time, leading their GP to prescribe antibiotic drops to solve the issue.
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It quickly got far worse though as she recalls thinking that something was 'growing' inside of Juwan's eyeball, and her son also had 'no feeling' in his eye, actively putting his finger in and scratching without flinching.
Her doctor was rightfully concerned about this and they were given an appointment with an ophthalmologist, who offered up an unexpected and frightening diagnosis: Juwan had herpes simplex virus (HPV) in his left eye.
Thankfully the virus was eventually put into remission, albeit after countless hospital trips and thousands of dollars in expenses, but it's rightfully left Michelle and her husband Neels stunned as the damage could have spread to Juwan's brain.
"Due to the damage caused to the eye, he developed a hole (open wound) in his eye, a 'cornea defect', and our baby's defect was 4mm in size," she explains in her Facebook post.
"It's the most traumatic experience to look at your baby, and literally see a 4mm open wound in his eye, which is so clearly visible."
In addition, Juwan still has no sensation in the eye, and it constantly gets infected due to the open wound. They are due to undergo three separate surgeries to save the eye, harvesting nerves from his leg to prepare for a hopeful cornea implant, but it's unclear whether that'll end up being possible right now.
As to how he managed to contract the virus, it appears that it is because someone with herpes either kissed his eye directly or within the area close to it, and considering both parents tested negative, it must have been someone else.
"I usually don't post such personal 'situations', especially relating to my children. However, I do feel it necessary to make people understand WHY YOU SHOULD NOT KISS SOMEONE'S BABY," Michelle stressed at the start of the post.
"The moral of the story — don't let anyone kiss your baby," she concluded. "Such a silly virus caused so much trauma and damage, it's just not worth it!"