Freak hair clip accident blinds 9-year-old girl
VIDEO - 9-year old Jayla Johnson is being home school these days. It's not by choice...
9-year old Jayla Johnson is being home school these days. It’s not by choice.
The Philadelphia fourth grader is under doctor’s orders to stay home and limit all activity because of a freak accident that has left her blind in one eye.
It all started last May when the plastic clip Jayla was putting into her hair broke and a piece of it hit her in the eye.
“We thought it just hit her on the outer part of the eye because she never complained. She never cried. She never said anything,” says Jayla’s mom, Robyn Johnson.
Jayla even performed in a dance competition and won the very next day, but afterwards her mom noticed her eye was red and irritated so she took her to the hospital, where she was told Jayla had a scratched cornea.
“I wasn’t satisfied with that something just told me it was more,” she recalls.
After visiting several different doctors, the mother and daughter ended up at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, where they got the bad news.
A small piece of metal from the spring on the hair clip had gone into Jayla’s eye.
Jayla has had five surgeries and had an oil bubble transplanted into her damaged eye to hold the retina in place.
She must wear protective glasses all the time and a special patch at night.
The hope is by summer, she will have some sight back and could be eligible for a lens transplant.
Still, Jayla is amazingly upbeat and she and her mother are on a crusade to alert other parents and kids about the dangers of hair clips.
