blunt trauma to the eye

my dad suffered blunt trauma in his eye after hitting it during work. this was over a month ago. he was prescribed eye drops to ease the swelling and pain. after a few days his eyesight deteriorated to its current state: blindness. he has seen a number of eye doctors and they all had different opinions. the usual response was there was too much swelling and blood in the eye activity to make any determination. another doctor said he has a cataract and would need to get surgery to correct it and to drain blood from his eye. they said his retina was still intact, though. just yesterday, however, he went to the USC medical center and after a number of tests they said his retina is damaged and beyond repair. the pressure can only be

my dad is 57 years old and does plumbing for a living. he has no insurance (cannot afford it) and i'm afraid his partial blindness will affect his work and be unable to support the family anymore. what options does he have? the trauma occurred over a month ago. is there really no hope for his eye?

[berrywoo]

If the doctors at USC said that surgery is not an option than there is little that can be done.
If he does need surgery, USC should have financial assistance programs for the needy. Or you can contact a Knights Templar near you or a Lion's Club as both have financial programs available.

People can lead normal lives with one eye (I'm assuming his other eye is 20/20 or close to it).

It's unfortunate that he had to learn the hard way that wearing protective eye wear is important. Now that he has only one eye I hope he's very careful with it!

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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