‘COVID eye’: This rare side effect nearly made a 9-year-old boy blind

When infected by the coronavirus, the body reacts differently depending on every individual. Some are asymptomatic, others only get mild symptoms, but this boy got the short end of the stick and almost went blind after contracting the coronavirus.

Severe infection

On 16 December, Angela Morey and her five children all tested positive for coronavirus—including her 9-year-old son, Zack Morey. Initially, he was only exhibiting 'cold-like' symptoms, but everything changed when he started feeling a weird pain in his eye, reported Daily Mail. Morey, who is also a councillor for Bradley Stoke Town Council, said:

I thought it just been on the computer for seven days solid so didn't think anything of it.

But by Christmas Eve it was not good at all. We took him to hospital and he was put on an antibiotic drip until Boxing Day.

Morey revealed that it was actually anallergic reaction that caused the severe, and potentially blinding, inflammation in his eye. She added:

They said if it goes too far into the eye then it can cause blindness.

The doctors said it was an allergic reaction to the virus that affects children.

The eye pain started on 22 December, and Zack had to spend his Christmas in the hospital. Luckily, he did make a quick recovery and doctors released him on Boxing Day.

Recently, Councillor Morey posted a picture of him on Twitter and confirmed that he was in fact doing much better.

What happened to Zach?

It turns out that Zach had actually been diagnosed with orbital cellulitis, which is a bacterial infection that occurs in the eye socket. While this is a rather rare side effect of a COVID infection, previous studies and anecdotal data have confirmed that getting ocular symptoms are not that unusual.

Reactions such as conjunctivitis, dry eye, blurred vision, and eye pain have all been reported along the course of the pandemic and these kinds of symptoms have often been referred to as ‘COVID eye.’