Freak Accident Eye Injury * graphic pictures inside*

[Papaloo]

Sunday morning I was using a wire wheel to clean bondo off the cab of my truck when a piece of wire broke off the wheel, deflected around the guard on my angle grinder and found the small gap between my cartridge filter half mask and my safety glasses. The wire pierced my lower eye lid and entered about a quarter inch into my eye. When it happenned all I felt was a small impact just under my safety glasses. I put down the grinder feeling disgusted that what I thought was a small flat piece of rust had hit so close to my eye, then removed my glasses and realized I couldn't move my eye in any direction without my vision bluring and pain. I then went and looked in a mirror and found the wire pinning my eyelid to my eye. I was home alone, and I wasn't expierencing any pain or bleeding and my vision was fine so I drove myself the three miles to the local ER. They took one look at me when I got there, didn't ask for any of my insurance or payment info and just rushed me past the waiting area. The doctor was looking at it within a few minutes of entering the door. The doctor didn't feel comfortable touching it so they put me on an IV of antibiotics and sent me via ambulance to Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. There I was examined by several doctors specialized in different parts of the eye and had a CT scan done to see how deep it had passed into the eye. At that point they told me they were going to pull it out in the minor procedure room, but they had also prepped the OR because when they pulled it could detatch my retina or allow the vitrious fluid to leak out, deflating my eye. In the minor procedure room, they pulled it out, with only a very small oozing of vitrious fluid and they put a few stitches in my eye to stop the leakage. We were able to see from the corrosion that had formed on the wire from it's six hour stay in my eye that it had pierced about a quarter inch into my eye. I spent that night and yesterday admitted to Jefferson University Hospital in their eye ward getting an IV of antibiotics and several eye exams to watch for infection. I am currently home, with a perscription for tablet antibiotics, eye drop antibiotics and eye drop steriods, I'm not allowed to do *anything* until wednesday morning when I'm due back for another exam and then I won't be able to do any physical labor for two weeks after that. Of course, I also received a box of new tools from MSC (Proto impact sockets and an Ingersol Rand cut off tool)and the '72 I bought for the body was delivered yesterday and I'll be getting a box from Eastwood today (pneumatic flanger and chevy orange ceramic engine paint). So all those goodies and I can't do anything. Though I am about to use the code I got from MSC yesterday for 35% off all safety gear in order to buy some face shields to compliment my safety glasses! I would recommend that everyone else also use a full face shield while grinding because, as I found the hard way, safety glasses just aren't enough. Stay safe everyone



BTW, the prognosis for my eye is no long term damage as long as it doesn't get infected.