Anyone who has had children has probably seen them suffer from eye infections from time to time.

But when Michelle Saaiman took a closer look at her son's eye, she made a terrifying discovery.

He thought it was an April Fool's joke.
The heartbreaking story of a little boy confronted with the terrifying reality of losing his eye after contracting herpes in his cornea following a kiss has been revealed.

It's every parent's worst nightmare: seeing their child suffer from an illness they didn't expect.

Michelle Saaiman, from Namibia, noticed something unusual in her 16-month-old son Juwan's eye last August, initially thinking it was just a simple eye infection. But when antibiotic drops failed and the infection worsened, a specialist confirmed the unimaginable: Juwan had contracted the herpes simplex virus (HSV), likely because someone with an active cold sore had kissed him around the eye.

Facebook / Michelle Saaiman
The diagnosis left Michelle and her husband in shock.

Michelle told Metro : "The doctor told me that a cold sore was developing on my child's cornea. I was literally looking at the doctor wondering if it was April 1st, because I thought it was an April Fool's joke."

Why did his eye "melt"?
Unfortunately, the herpes infection damaged Juwan's cornea so badly that he became completely blind in that eye. Juwan's eye began to "melt" as the natural lubrication disappeared, creating a 4 mm hole. At one point, doctors feared he would lose his eye entirely.

“At that point, the herpes had caused so much damage that he lost all sensation in his eye and couldn’t see anything anymore,” Michelle explains. “His brain no longer recognized his eye and stopped sending it signals. The gel protecting the eye then evaporated, and his eye dried out.”

To give their son a chance, Juwan's parents took him to Cape Town for specialist treatment.

The child underwent an amnion transplant in the hope of saving his cornea. His eyelids were stitched shut as a precaution, and the family is planning another major operation in April to transfer nerves from his leg to his eye. If this operation is successful, it will pave the way for a corneal transplant next year.

Despite everything he went through, Michelle says Juwan was incredibly brave. "Juwan is such a soldier, he always had a smile on his face. But he was suffering terribly," she said. "It's not right that such a small human being should have to go through all that."

Uncertainty and challenges
Initially, Michelle and her husband were naturally "very, very angry" at the person responsible for transmitting the herpes virus to their son.

“My husband and I were angry at the person who had the selfishness to kiss my child on the face while he had an active cold sore,” Michelle said. “Kisses come from love. So whoever gave him that, I’m sure they didn’t do it intentionally or with the idea of ​​hurting him.”

Facebook / Michelle Saaiman
The family's journey has been fraught with uncertainty and challenges. Juwan's parents endured weeks of medical procedures, including contacting experts in New York to obtain the right medication. They lived in constant fear that the herpes would spread to his brain or his other eye.

Although the virus has been somewhat contained, the damage to Juwan's eye is irreversible and his parents are still fighting to save his sight.

Awareness