A boy from Thirsk whose eyes were accidentally glued together after mistaking super glue for eye drops is set to appear on Helicopter ER tomorrow.
In February 2021, nine-year-old Rupert Day sustained a nasty eye injury due to grit in his eyeball. He had been on eye drops for two days when his dad accidentally picked up super glue instead of the drops when giving him his treatment.
Rupert’s dad Kevin said: “Rupert scratched his eye a few days ago and we were given some eye cream. I went to put it in and then realised I had put superglue in his eye instead. I phoned 999 who advised us to keep flushing it and they said an ambulance was on its way. I wasn’t expecting the air ambulance.”
Due to the close proximity of their airbase to the incident, Yorkshire Air Ambulance dispatched their Topcliffe aircraft and was first on the scene. Their Paramedics bathed Rupert’s eye and administered pain relief until the land ambulance was able to take him to Harrogate Hospital for further treatment.
“I had a massive fear that I had blinded my son and ruined his life”, said Rupert’s Dad.
Speaking of his incident, Rupert said: “I was worried if my eye would open again.”
Rupert spent a few hours in the hospital and couldn’t open his eye for four scary days. But thankfully no glue had gone into his eye and his vision has been completely fine following his traumatic ordeal.
The episode of Helicopter ER which will be shown on Channel Really at 10 PM on Tuesday 2nd November also features a cardiac arrest in Ilkley and a DIY incident in South Yorkshire.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) serves 5 million people across Yorkshire and carries out over 1,300 missions every year. The Charity operates two, state-of-the-art Airbus H145 helicopters and needs to raise £12,000 every day to keep saving lives.
