A young man involved in a horror acid attack will have eyesight problems for life.
Tega Agberhiere, 17, suffered severe burns to his face in April. Nobody has yet been charged and a file is with the DPP.
Tega said he had undergone a number of skin graft operations in Cork which involved the painful procedure of taking skin from his leg and transplanting it to his face.
“I’m recovering and it’s been tough; I’m taking every day as it comes,” he said, adding he was happy with how his recovery was going so far.
Tega, an Ireland underage soccer player and a massive Arsenal fan, received a big boost in the post.
“I have just got a signed team photograph from the Arsenal squad and a personalised letter from their striker Pierre - Emerick Aubameyang,” he told Déise Today on WLR FM, saying the gesture was “unreal”.
Aubameyang is one of the young man’s favourite players.
He said in his interview that he was back doing light training and hopes to play soccer in the forthcoming season.
Tega explained how surgeons are so far happy with how the skin grafts have worked but that he’s been told the eyesight in this right eye will probably never recover fully.
He also spoke about the pain he was in over the past few months and that although he is trying to be as upbeat as possible, he said the pain was so bad at times he was forced to miss his accountancy Leaving Cert exam last month.
Tega’s mother, Christy Agberhiere, said that the family were just taking things “moment by moment” and she and her son thanked all the people who had supported the family through what has been a very, very difficult period.
“We are not just taking it day by day, we are taking it moment by moment,” she said.
