Six-year-old Saravana, of UKG, was enjoying a game in the school premises when things went horribly wrong. A class-fellow, in friendly teasing mood take hold of handful of mud and threw it at Saravana. Unfortunately, along with the mud was a nail which hit Saravana’s right eye, unsighted him completely.
Saravana’s father, Raghu, a daily-wage worker blames the school authorities at A K R Memorial School in Horamavu’s Thirumala Layout for the loos of his son’s vision.
The incident occurred during the break around 1.30 pm on January 2. Raghu alleges that the school had not made the grade to clear nails on the playground in spite of knowing that children play there during the break.
As per Saravana’s father, the school authorities had failed to immediately ensure medical treatment.
According to the papers issued by Minto Hospital, Saravana is diagnosed with a traumatic cataract and corneal tear. Meanwhile, School authorities, got a letter with thumb imprints from his parents absolving themselves of any blame.
In the letter, the school stated: “The principal came to know about the incident and he advised to take (sic) to eye hospital but the parents refused and took him away from the school. The next day the management voluntarily called upon the parents and advised (sic) to go to Dr Sailaja’s Eye Hospital for treatment wherein the doctor advised immediate surgery as there was severe infection but the parents were not interested in getting the procedure done. They themselves took him to two hospitals and almost 48 hours had lapsed due to delay by parents in spite of school management assuring all possible help.”
On the other hand, Saravana’s father Raghu claimed he was not aware of the content of the letter as everything was written in English. “My boy would not have lost his vision had the school responded immediately when they saw him bleeding,” Raghu said. “We did not want to deprive our son of an opportunity to study. We struggle a lot to ensure that he gets good English education. But now I don’t know how to raise funds for his medical treatment.”