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When Michelle Saaiman noticed something strange in her 16-month-old son Juwan\u2019s eye, she assumed it was a common infection. But when antibiotics didn\u2019t help, doctors revealed something shocking \u2014 herpes simplex virus (HSV) had infected his cornea, likely from a kiss by someone with a cold sore.<\/p>\n
The virus caused severe damage. Juwan lost vision in the affected eye, which developed a painful hole. Desperate to save it, the family flew to Cape Town for emergency surgery. His eyelids were stitched closed temporarily, and a nerve transfer surgery is planned in April.<\/p>\n
Michelle was heartbroken but determined to raise awareness. \u201cKisses come from love,\u201d she said, \u201cbut they can carry serious risks for young children.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s since shared their story online, and the community has rallied around them. Through pain and uncertainty, Juwan continues to smile \u2014 a symbol of resilience and a reminder to protect our littlest ones from hidden dangers.<\/p>\n
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When Michelle Saaiman noticed something strange in her 16-month-old son Juwan\u2019s eye, she assumed it was a common infection. But when antibiotics didn\u2019t help, doctors revealed something shocking \u2014 herpes simplex virus (HSV) had infected his cornea, likely from a kiss by someone with a cold sore. The virus caused severe damage. Juwan lost vision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nativevoicesonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}