WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES Ruby Grainger, 7, was walking back home from an ice cream van when an object believed to be battery acid from a vape pen on a bonfire hit her right eye
A young girl has lost her eye after battery acid from a vape pen shot into her face from a street bonfire.
Seven-year-old Ruby Grainger was walking past an open fire on the grass on her housing estate in Tallaght, Dublin on the way back from the ice cream van when the object hit her right eye, leading it to begin gushing blood. Her mother, Ciara Grainger, 32, said she “could’ve collapsed” when her daughter arrived at the door bleeding, and said when doctors looked at her eye there was “nothing there”. Ciara said fires have lit on the estate’s green every day of the week.
Ruby was rushed to Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital for emergency surgery, where doctors were sadly not able to save her right eye. The mum-of-four said medics believe the damage was caused by battery acid because her eyeball was left “like mashed potato”, and did not appear to have been damaged by a physical object. Ciara told the Irish Mirror: “After the operation, the doctor said ‘It’s bad news, we had to take the eye away’. They said this is the first case of this kind of damage from a fire, they have seen explosions but to lose her whole eye, the socket, everything.
“I don’t think it has properly hit me that the child has no eye now. For a split second her whole life changed, and mine too, when she lost her eye I lost mine. If I could give her mine I would. I’d give everything for her, she’s only seven, and this never should have happened to her. I can’t believe it.” The mum added that her daughter would now likely have to attend a vision impaired school, and will need training to help her recover her balance. She will be in line for recieving a prosthetic eye in the next few weeks should her recovery go well.
The family has set up a Gofundme to help raise money for the seven-year-old’s recovery from the “devastating” loss of sight and the emotional impact of the incident. It has so far raised 3,400 euros (£2,800) of its 10,000 euro goal, and mum Ruby Grainger wrote on the page: “I’m putting this up here to make sure that people know what happened. I hope and pray that people can know that I would never ever wish this to happen to any other child or for another family to go through.
