A dad who was the victim of a horrific acid attack hopes his vision will be saved thanks to a treatment using donated placenta.
Paul Laskey, 43, had rushed to the aid of his son Robson, 19, after his gold necklace was stolen on the street by a thug carrying a zombie knife.
When he approached the perpetrator, he was squirted in the face with a corrosive substance from a drinks bottle.
Mr Laskey told the Express: “It was absolutely horrific. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t breathe because it went in my nose and mouth as well. I thought I was fighting for my life.”
The plumbing and heating engineer was rushed to Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary by police, where doctors tried to flush away the acid with bags of liquid.
He added: “I couldn’t see anything out of my left eye. It was swollen shut like a boxer’s.”
The severe chemical burn left the cells in Mr Laskey’s eye unable to properly repair or regenerate the surface of the cornea and the nerves were failing to function properly. The inner and outer layers of his cornea “melted”, causing vision loss.
Over eight months, Mr Laskey had two emergency corneal transplants and three amnion grafts, where tissue is taken from the inner lining of a donated placenta.
NHS Blood and Transplant’s (NHSBT) Cord Blood Bank collects placentas at two hospitals — University College London and Luton and Dunstable Hospitals.
Scientists at NHSBT’s Tissue and Eye Services then use them to create a specialist tissue graft, which can be used to treat eye injuries.
The treatment helped to stabilise Mr Laskey’s eye and avoid further melting. His doctors now hope his sight could be restored with a stem cell transplant.
Each donated placenta can be used to make around 50 to 100 amnion grafts for patients with eye injuries, burns, diseases, and to help protect the eye in the weeks after a cornea transplant.
Father-of-three Mr Laskey said the process was “absolutely unbelievable”, adding: “I’m so thankful to the mother who chose to donate her placenta to help people like me who are at risk of losing their sight completely.
“It’s incredible to know that a new life can help so many people in such a profound way, using something that’s usually thrown away.”
Mr Laskey’s attacker Robbie Scott, from Gateshead, was jailed for a decade last May at the age of 21.
Professor Francisco Figueiredo, consultant ophthalmologist at Newcastle Eye Centre who treated Mr Laskey, said rapid treatment was crucial with chemical eye burns.
He added: “Amnion is widely used for a variety of ocular surface problems and it is incredible to think that this is possible due to the generosity of a mother, donating the organ that she has grown to help grow her child. It really is remarkable.”
