A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD schoolboy from Cleethorpes is awaiting surgery to restore his sight after being blinded in one eye by a controversial loom band bracelet.
Photographs of Kyle Lawrence's horrific injuries have been viewed by 25,000 people worldwide – including as far away as Australia – after his mum shared them on Facebook as a warning to other parents.
Mum-of-six Carlie, 32, is now calling for safety warnings on all loom bands, which are brightly-coloured plastic hoops that can be weaved together to form bracelets.
She says Kyle was stretching out a newly-made bracelet with his older brother when his brother let go and the band flew into his eye.
It comes as the bands hit national headlines for turning the hands of a Bristol boy blue when he fell asleep while playing with them and cutting off the blood supply.
Carlie, of Sandringham Road, said: "It was absolutely awful seeing Kyle in such pain. He hasn't been the same since it happened because he can't go outside and play with his school friends or take part in activities.
"It's hard to believe that a toy could cause such a serious injury and I just hope that by sharing our story we can stop this happening to somebody else."
Kyle, who attends St Joseph's Catholic Academy, was making bands with brother Jamie, nine, when the injury happened.
He had made a bracelet using a special contraption that fits around the ankle and the brothers were then stretching it out between them when Jamie accidently let go and it hit Kyle in the eye.
Carlie recalled: "He screamed so loud that I've never heard anything like it.
"He just kept screaming and the pain made him violently sick. It was so horrible that I found it hard to look.
"We took him to accident and emergency and they discharged him with some eye drops and sent us home.
"I was up all night with him being sick and he still couldn't see anything in the morning so we took him back.
"The eye clinic found that he had several bleeds and a blood clot behind his eye. He was blind and at one point his eyeball was rolling around in the socket."
Kyle was put on two weeks of bed rest and the swelling went down but his eyesight did not return.
Doctors are hopeful they will be able to restore his sight and he is currently awaiting an operation at Sheffield Children's Hospital.
Carlie added: "If something like this can happen when children are being supervised, then there should definitely be warnings on loom band packets.
"You have to stretch the bracelets out or you can't wear them, so it's something every child who plays with them will have done.
"Knowing one of your children has lost his sight in one eye is horrible and knowing it's because of a toy is even worse.
"We're absolutely gutted and just hope the operation works."
Carlie has since banned all of her children, including Kyle, Jamie and Nicole, 14, Alicia, 13, Leah, 11, and Lucas, one, from using loom bands.
Kyle's school has also stopped pupils from using them on the premises.
