3-Year-Old Boy Left Blind in One Eye After Nursery Fall Faces Heartbreaking 3-Year Wait for Surgery
( Image: Gemma Lithgow / SWNS)
A three-year-old boy, Levi Lithgow, has been left blind in one eye and suffers constant pain after a fall at nursery caused a severe injury, altering his life forever. The incident, which seemed minor when Levi was just one year old, led to the dislodging of his eye’s lens, resulting in severe light sensitivity and excruciating discomfort.
Despite having the lens removed, Levi’s condition worsened as fluid-filled his eye, causing relentless pain. Now, his family faces the heart-wrenching reality of waiting three years for surgery to remove his eye entirely. Levi’s mother, Gemma Lithgow, 22, from Ayr, Scotland, shared the immense pain her son endures daily, told The Sun.
“It’s got to the point that he wakes in the middle of the night screeching and clawing at his eye. The pain is so bad that there’s no consoling him,” she explained. She continued, “Having his eye removed would stop all of his pain and the hospital trips. He would be able to live a normal little boy’s life. I couldn’t imagine him living three years with the amount of pain he is in.”
Gemma and her husband, Robert, 24, recall their son being perfectly healthy before the accident in May 2022. A small bump while Levi was learning to walk changed everything, leaving him fearful during medical visits and unable to enjoy his usual activities. Gemma said, “When he was in the light, it would hurt. We assumed it was just a scratch at first. It got to the point he couldn’t travel in the car without us blocking the window with a towel first.”
After his lens was surgically removed in December 2023, Levi was left blind in one eye. Unfortunately, multiple surgeries to manage his eye pressure proved unsuccessful. By August 2024, doctors confirmed that the damage was irreversible, and further attempts to save his sight were futile.
Now, Levi struggles to go to nursery due to his sensitivity to light, which often leaves him completely blind. “When it’s sunny outside, he can’t see where he’s going and it causes him pain. He ends up shutting the other eye too – and then he’s completely blind,” Gemma said, expressing her anguish over her son’s suffering.
With a three-year wait for surgery to remove Levi’s eye and fit a prosthetic, the family is considering private treatment, which costs up to $21,000. To help cover the cost, Gemma has started a GoFundMe page, which has raised over $8,000 from generous donors. However, they are still far from their goal.
“If we can get the money, we could have the surgery done by the start of next year. There must have been a one-in-a-million chance of this happening – he was healthy until he bumped his head,” Gemma added.
