Surgeons save two-year-old's sight after tip of lulav gets stuck in cornea

While playing with a lulav (palm branch) purchased for the Sukkot holiday with his twin brother, a  two-year-old boy named Yehuda was injured in the cornea of his eye and needed surgery, where it was urgently performed at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center (SZMC).

At first, it seemed that the blow was not too severe, but the next morning, when Yehuda woke up with a red eye, his parents contacted an ophthalmologist at their health fund who urgently sent them to SZMC’s emergency room.

After an examination, it became clear that part of the lulav had entered the toddler’s cornea and remained there – almost piercing the anterior chamber of the eye.

Prof. Zadok, head of the ophthalmology department, and his team performed emergency surgery, removing the foreign body from his eye. After a short hospitalization, Yehuda was discharged to his home.

Doctor has a warning for all parents

His mother, Tamar, said; “Thank God, our Yehuda is safe and sound now, but it could also have ended differently. I call on parents to pay attention and to remember that even a seemingly safe game can be dangerous, certainly in the hustle and bustle of the holidays when we sometimes are not watching, We thank the doctors and nurses who treated Yehuda and wish good health to everyone.”

Zadok said that the child arrived with a piece of the lulav embedded in the cornea of his eye. During the operation, the foreign body was removed from his eye. I urge parents to pay close attention to what gets into their children's eyes, especially when they are outside and small particles of leaves and other objects can enter the eye and endanger their sight. Young children can’t express what happened to them, so double caution is required by the parents.”