Surgeons have saved a five-year-old girl's sight after she damaged her eye in a horrific freak accident.

Little Milan Thomas almost lost her right eye 18 months ago.

The accident left her with part of the eye nearly sliced off and it was touch and go whether surgeons would be able to save it.

Milan has had to endure three operations and daily doses of eye drops as part of a long regime to get her eye working properly again.

Now, after months of work, doctors are happy Milan's eye is performing well and are confident she will have no further problems.

Her mother, Tania Thomas, from Goring, near Worthing, said: "She is absolutely fine now and you wouldn't know anything had happened to the eye.

"It has been a busy and stressful time for everyone, but it is over now and she is doing really well."

The ordeal began in the summer of 2000 when Milan went on a shopping trip in Worthing with her mother.

Milan was playing with a plastic headband while her mother loaded shopping into the car.

When the youngster bent the band it snapped in half and startled her. The toddler fell over and a sharp end of the headband sliced into her eye, badly damaging the lens and pupil.

Miss Thomas recalled: "I heard her crying and rushed over but at first I couldn't really see what damage she had done to herself.

"It was only when she calmed down and we started to make our way home that I noticed the white of the eye had gone all discoloured.

"Milan also suddenly became very sleepy and I realised there was something seriously wrong."

Milan was rushed to Worthing Hospital where the sleepiness was put down to shock.

Consultant surgeon Peter Fox carried out a five-hour operation to remove two cataracts that had immediately formed on her eye. He also had to put in a replacement lens.

Miss Thomas said: "It was a really worrying time because we knew that after all that Milan might still lose the eye.

"But the surgeons were absolutely brilliant and managed to save it. I am so grateful for everything they did."

Milan was allowed home after two weeks in hospital. But her ordeal was not over.

She had to go through months of hospital trips and doses of eye drops all geared towards helping the eye get stronger.

She also had to have two further operations to straighten the lens in her eye when it started to slip.

Miss Thomas said: "She has been very brave and taken it all in her stride. At first she used to hate the eye drops and it was a struggle to give them to her. But she eventually got used to them.

"It was very difficult for the first few months as we had to watch her all the time to make sure she didn't fall over or bang her head.

"We also had to be careful other children weren't too boisterous around her because if she had hurt the eye again it might not have been saved a second time."

Milan now goes to The Laurels Primary School in Worthing and is doing well. She was given a pair of glasses but has not needed them so far.

Miss Thomas said: "She has been absolutely brilliant. She has been through quite a lot but is going from strength to strength now. There's no stopping her."