DOMINIC'S SIGHT IS SAVED BY MUSCLES FROM LEG; Rare op joy.

Byline: By Laura Scott

A BOY of five who could not open his eyes can see after surgeons attached muscle from his thigh to his eyelids.

Dominic Head was born with a severe abnormality which meant his eyelid muscles were so weak he could not open them to see properly.

Before the radical operation, the youngster had to tip his head backwards to peer from under his eyelids - but even then his vision was blurred.

A spokesman for London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, where the surgery took place, said the experience was similar to 'constantly peering through black curtains'.

But Dominic's life has been transformed after doctors agreed to the procedure.

Surgeons cut a strip of tendon from one of Dominic's thighs and used it to attach his eyelids to his forehead muscle.

And the transplant then gave his eyelids the power to open.

Dominic's adoptive mother, Avril Head, said the operation had given him a fresh lease of life.

She added: 'Thanks to the surgery, Dominic thinks he has been given a new pair of eyes.'

Dominic, of south Croydon, Surrey, suffered from foetal alcohol syndrome.

The condition was believed to have been caused by his natural mother drinking too much during pregnancy.

The operation is relatively rare and the hospital has carried out just two similar procedures in the last year.

A hospital spokesman said: 'The doctors are delighted with the outcome of the operation.

'It has greatly improved Dominic's quality of life.'

CAPTION(S):

SURGERY: Little Dominic can now see