HARTLEPOOL STUDENT LOSES LEFT EYE AFTER FIREWORK EXPLODES

Aleks Stasiukiewicz lost his left eye when an unexploded firework detonated as he approached it in a Hartlepool park in November 2024. He had attended an organised display at a rugby club before going to the park with friends. The blast knocked him to the ground, and his friends called 999. His mother, Julie, arrived minutes later and found him in an ambulance. She said: “I had to watch as his eye leaked down the side of his face.”

Doctors at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough told Aleks he had also lost part of his eyelid. He had burns to his arm and leg and had fractured a front tooth. Specialist oculoplastic surgeons removed firework fragments from his eye socket. They inserted a ball-shaped prosthesis designed to move with the socket. Julie said Aleks underwent surgery the day after the explosion and retained movement in the socket.

Aleks and Julie are now urging people to follow firework safety advice ahead of Bonfire Night. “When people say don't play with fireworks, listen,” Aleks said. He said fireworks could cause serious injuries and urged others not to handle them. Julie thanked the hospital team for Aleks’s treatment and said its work had helped him regain some normality.