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Mum left 'scarred for life' by magic wand

A mum-of-three was seriously injured after a magic wand she bought for Christmas almost took out her eye.

Clarissa Clary, 44, had purchased the "Magic Staff" toy on eBay for her 16-year-old son Caine.

The item is a retractable staff which starts off as a two-inch object and extends to five foot with just the click of a button.

However, after she accidentally set it off, the staff shot up and hit her head, knocking her down to the floor and missing her eye by just an inch.

'I'm still feeling really sick and dizzy'

Doctors told her she could have lost her eye and said the sheer force of the staff could have caused brain damage.

Clarissa from Canvey Island, Essex, said: "I'm still feeling really sick and dizzy. I didn't have any feeling there because the force of it had severed all the nerves."

Luckily, Clarissa had tried the staff out before wrapping it and giving it to her son Caine, who has special needs.

"I had put it back in the box ready to get it wrapped for Christmas but when I picked up the bag I must have released it and it shot out and hit me straight in the face,." she said.

"I was in a daze for quite a few hours holding on to my head. At the time my dad and daughter were laughing at me and I actually laughed at the time too. But then my dad said 'are you okay?' because it knocked me to the floor.

"I was holding onto my head and he said 'let me have a look' and then blood starting pouring from it. I had blood all over my face and my arms.

'I might need an operation to remove the debris'

Clarissa rushed to Basildon Hospital where she waited for more than five hours to be seen by medical staff.

Although staff cleaned the wound externally it was not cleaned internally, she said, adding: "This object has metal fragments and oil in it. I might need an operation to remove the debris from it. I basically need a plastic surgeon,

"They have to remove whatever's there and stitch it up. I'll be scarred forever. I have an infection under the wound and a lump and it keeps swelling up."

To help raise awareness of the staff, she has posted about the incident on her Facebook page and shared gory images of her injury.

"The amount of people that have messaged me and said they were thinking about purchasing this is unbelievable - and for children as young as eight.

"This thing is so so dangerous, if a child got hold of this I dread to think what could happen."