Girl made ill after opticians make glasses the wrong way round

Tayla Don, seven, wore the pink Specsavers specs obediently all day and every day – though unbeknown to everyone they were probably making her vision worse. Yet the initial Specsavers reaction was not an official apology – but a bottle of free lens cleaner worth £3.

The mammoth myopic mistake was only spotted when mum Beverley took Tayla for a routine eye test at Milton Keynes Hospital. She said: "We'd wondered why her eyesight wasn't getting better. In fact, I'd thought several times that the glasses didn't seem to be doing much good at all."

Mrs Don even mentioned to Specsavers at thecentre:mk 18 months ago that Tayla's new glasses were giving her headaches and making her nauseous. "I was told that was a normal reaction and the symptoms would disappear in time – which they did," she said.



But this month doctors could not believe their eyes when they realised that, since June 2008, the little girl had been wearing the right lens in the left eye and the left in the right. Tayla has now been given a stronger prescription by the hospital and must return for more tests.

"I hope that wearing the wrong lenses for all that time has not caused permanent damage," said her mum. She complained to Specsavers as soon as the blunder was discovered, then again when she went to pick up Tayla's new specs at the weekend.

"They went away to check the old glasses, then confirmed that they were the wrong way round. Then when I asked to buy a bottle of lens cleaner she said I could have it free to make up for all the trouble."