Mum Bhavna Ramji was taken to hospital after nearly being blinded – by her Mother's Day card.
The 40-year-old was rushed to casualty at Leicester Royal Infirmary after her two-year-old son accidentally sliced the inside of her eyelid open with the card.
Mrs Ramji, who lives off Narborough Road, near Fosse Park, said: "I was in agony. I looked like I had been punched in the face.
"I know it sounds funny but I could have been blinded.
"My husband tried to help by getting lotion from the chemist but the pain got so bad I had to go to accident and emergency."
The legal secretary, who is off work sick this week, said she was injured at about 6.30am on Sunday.
She said: "My son Dhruv woke up at 5.30am as usual so I brought him into our bedroom.
"As it was Mother's Day my husband, Ashok, looked after him and they both surprised me with a card and present at about 6.30am.
"Dhruv was on our bed and I opened the card and the present, which was a lovely leather wallet.
"My little boy was so excited he started waving the card about and it was then that it cut me.
"The card must have caught me a glancing blow. I have no idea how it got on to the inside of my eyelid but it did."
Mr Ramji, 52, got lotion from the chemist but he later took his wife to hospital, at about 2pm.
Mrs Ramji said she was seen within an hour by a nurse, who gave her antibiotics and eye drops.
She was still in pain yesterday so she went to see an optician.
"The optician said I need to wear a patch to close the eye," she said. "He said the eye was blinking and keeping the wound open. I think it may have got a little infected, too."
Mrs Ramji said when she rang work to say she was sick, her excuse raised a few eyebrows.
She said: "I had to tell them that I had my eye sliced open by my two-year-old son wielding my Mother's Day card. They did not believe me. When they did they could not stop laughing.
"I have been signed off all week because I need to rest the eye and stop it opening and aggravating the injury.
"My husband feels bad but I am glad my son is too young to know. I would not want him to feel awful."
Last year, Mrs Ramji spent Mother's Day in bed after she got a two-day bout of food poisoning.
She said: "I am hoping next year is a little less eventful and I might get to enjoy being pampered."
