‘It was going for my eye’: Sunbury man has iris replaced after Magpie swooping attack

A Sunbury man has become the first person in Victoria is have a new type of lens implanted after being attacked by a marauding magpie.

A Sunbury father has told of his horror at having part of his eye pecked out by a “killer” magpie that swooped his family while they were riding their bicycles.

So serious were Christiaan Nyssen’s eye injuries from the repeated swoops of the angry bird that he required months of specialist eye care and then delicate surgery to implant a new artificial intraocular iris and lens to save his sight.

The implant, imported from America, replaced the iris — the coloured part of the eye — and the lens, which focuses light onto the retina.

Christiaan and his wife Sandra are keen cyclists. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Eye surgeon Dr Elvis Ojaimi at Epworth Freemasons did the intricate surgery guided by a powerful microscope to repair the retina, remove Mr Nyssen’s entire damaged lens and then suture the prosthetic inside the eye.

The retired flight simulator technician, 73, is the first person in Victoria to undergo the new sight-saving procedure.

Now 18 months into his recovery and with his eyesight saved, Mr Nyssen is urging cyclists to wear protective glasses and helmets with a visor, or “peak” at the front.

He said both would have saved him from serious injury on that fateful November morning when he and wife Sandra were enjoying a relaxing bike ride at Yarrawonga in the northeast of the state.

Dr Elvis Ojaimi at Epworth Freemasons performing Mr Nyssen’s surgery. Picture: Supplied.

“We were on holidays and didn’t have our usual riding gear with us,” Mr Nyssen told the Herald Sun.

“We regularly ride our bikes; I have been hit in the back of the head countless times by swooping magpies and never worried about it.

“On this day the magpie attacked from the front without warning. It was going for my eye and came straight at my face, twice.”

Bleeding profusely from his eye, Mr Nyssen said he knew immediately his injury was serious.

“I couldn’t see out of my eye,” he said, adding it was hit with sickening force.

Mrs Nyssen took her husband to the local hospital and then later for treatment in Melbourne.

“I was told it was a matter of time, we had to wait to see if the damaged retina would heal,” Mr Nyssen said.

Christiaan was left with a bloodied ear in another Magpie attack

He decided to get a second opinion and was referred to Dr Ojaimi at Epworth Freemasons who discovered the force of the maurading magpie’s sharp beak had caused considerable damage to Mr Nyssen’s eye including a detached retina, iris trauma and a cataract with instability.

“These eye injuries (from swooping magpies) are more common than you think,” Dr Ojaimi said.

“But serious damage like this, is quite rare.”

He said Mr Nyssen needed multiple and complex surgeries to repair his eye, with no guarantees of success.

But he said in Mr Nyssen’s favour was, ironically, that cycling had kept him very fit.

Mr Nyssen says the artificial iris is a perfect colour match to his other eye and he is more than happy with the outcome.

And while he is not letting swooping magpies put him off his love of riding, Mr Nyssen did have a word of caution for fellow cyclists: “watch out for those magpies”.

Why do magpies swoop?

• Only males swoop and they do it within 100 metres to protect their nests

• Swooping season is August through to September

• Magpies often go back to nest in the same spot every year