BRANDON Joshua D. Tudela, who turns 13 years old today, hopes that he would be able to see with his left eye again in the next few weeks.
Tudela’s left eye was severely damaged when a firecracker called “mad lion” accidentally hit it on Dec. 15. He feared he wouldn’t be able to completely see again after the accident.
“I would never again stay near a firecracker nor light one. My message to the other kids out there is not to play with firecrackers,” said Tudela, who wants to become a police or soldier when he grows up.
Tudela, a 7th grade student of Hopwood Junior High School, will undergo another eye surgery at the Straub Clinic and Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii within the next few weeks.
He and his parents, Patricio and Carmen Tudela, are seeking the community’s assistance.
A fund-raising dinner on June 15, from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at the Kilili Beach basketball court, will be held to help raise money for his surgery. The ticket costs $20 per person, with one free drink.
“We request the community’s support not only for our child Brandon, but for all the patients here who need to be medically referred off-island,” said the father.
Immediately after the accident, the child was rushed to the Commonwealth Health Center emergency room. Dr. David Khorram, the lone certified ophthalmologist in the CNMI, was called in to treat the bleeding, which resulted in 16 stitches in the left eye.
“It really scared me. This is every parent’s nightmare—to see their kid suffering,” said the mother, an employee at Dandan Elementary School.
The Tudela family regularly visited Khorram for follow-up treatment, and whenever the child’s eye would bleed.
Khorram then referred the Tudelas to Straub Clinic in Hawaii for a surgery on Dec. 27.
“After the surgery, the first question my child asked me was, ‘Did the doctor save my eye?” his mother said.
“That’s so hard for me and his dad to answer. We tried our very best to explain to him that the doctor did his very best to save his eyesight, but it didn’t happen. He was crying, and it was painful for all of us,” said the mother.
Straub Clinic advised the Tudela family to come back within six months to undergo another surgery—this time for a lens implant for Brandon.
The Tudelas started holding a novena to St. Jude on May 29 “for hope, guidance and strength” not only for the child but for his family, relatives and friends as well.
The father is also urging for the strict enforcement of a law prohibiting store owners from selling firecrackers to minors.
“The store attendant did not only sell firecrackers to my kids, she also sold a lighter to them,” the father said.
Brandon’s mother added, “I know that somehow we parents were at fault because we were not able to supervise them at that time when they were about to buy firecrackers. But we believe store owners should also comply with the law.”
