SuperGlue and Spider Guts and Other Preventable Eye Injuries

OK, since I have this blog, I'm going to try and do my part for the public good and try to inform you about ways to protect your eyes from serious injuries.  Let's get right down to it.  I'm a firm believer in Murphy's Law.  What can go wrong, will go wrong. Always wear approved eye protection glasses (it will say ANSI APROVED) when doing any activities that you suspect might possibly put your eyes at risk.  These include drilling, hammering, trimming, cutting, spraying, weed wacking, grass cutting, fishing, using hazardous cleaners or chemicals and may other things I can't think of right now.

Here are some of the weirder eye injuries I've seen that you truly never want to experience:

1.  Superglue to the eye.  I've actually seen this 3 times and it happens because some people are nearly blind without their glasses and some superglue bottles can be similar in size to eye drop bottles.

2.  Spider guts to the eye.  In Florida, we call them Banana Spiders but they are about the size of a silver dollar and spin huge webs.  This unfortunate man had so many webs in his rafters around his barn that he decided to attack the problem with a weed-wacker and spider parts flew everywhere, including his eyes.

3.  A fisherman with a fish hook embedded into the eye.  Again, the same story. No protective eye wear.

4.  Paintball and Airsoft gun injuries to eye.  I've seen about 6 cases, all very serious, lifelong problems afterward.  All, totally preventable with proper eye protection.

5. Curling iron burns to the eye.  Also seen this about 4 times, always with women trying to curl their bangs and accidentally dropping the curling iron.

6.  A roofer nailing shingles to a roof came to see me with a nail that went directly into the eye and required 3 subsequent surgeries in order to maintain just a little vision.  He said the 2 nails had popped up and hit him in the face before the final devestating blow.  You think he might have thought to wear eye protection after the first or second time.

7. Cat claw to eye.  This cat lover, required surgery to repair the laceration, from her lovely cat that was startled and popper her in the eye.  This is the one that made me cringe the most.

8.  Exploding, bottle rocket, direct hit to the eye.  It was not another pretty sight.  We'll leave it at that.

9. Cigarette burn to the eye.  Almost always little children about the same height as a persons back pocket, which is roughly about where some smokers hold their burning cigarettes between puffs. The child can inadvertantly walk into the cigarette and get a superficial burn.  As far as I know, the few cases I have seen from emergency rooms have indeed been total accidents and all kids healed 100%.

Be careful and protect your eyes!