Mum of teenager blinded by diet of crisps, Pringles blames NHS

The mother of a teenager who went blind after eating only crisps and chocolate has blamed the UK's National Health Service (NHS) for her condition.

Kerry James said she and her son Harvey Dyer felt let down by the NHS because they did not intervene sooner.

Appearing on ITV's This Morning on Tuesday (local time), Ms James claimed doctors could have done more to treat Harvey's eating disorder, known as 'food restriction avoidance disorder'.

Last October, Harvey, 18, went blind in his left eye and a doctor blamed it on a lack of vitamins and minerals in his diet.

The devoted mother believes the vitamin A injections could have saved Harvey's sight if they had been given earlier.

“If they had taken a blood test at that time and realized [Harvey’s] The vitamin A was so low that they could have given him the vitamin A injections then,” Ms James said, adding that the injection “could have saved” his eyesight.

“Now we just have to wait and see.”

“We were offered milkshakes and things like that, but at the time you weren't able to take them at all. I think she told him that you're getting old now, you have to take responsibility and eat these foods.”

Ms James said Harvey would sweat, cry and scream when he was offered foods he didn't like.

And when she took him to a pediatrician as a child, she couldn't get him to take the medications they offered.

The mother insisted she “couldn’t have done more” to help her son and that she was not a “bad mom”.

Urusula Philpot, a dietitian at Leeds Beckett University who also appeared on the show, said she also believed Harvey had been failed by the system.

Ms Philpot said he should have been given appropriate vitamins and minerals in injectable form.

She argued that Harvey and his family had an experience that “should not have happened.”

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