Wear your goggles - A short cautionary tale

[ronh72c10]

Well I'm back from the ER and have a belly full of pasta and garlic bread so I can admit how stupid I was yesterday and hopefully encourage some smarter behaviour in others.

I was working on the passenger door of the C10 cutting the door bottom out and fitting a new piece, I was nearly done fitting and just needed to do a little more grinding. Ahhh, two seconds worth of grinding who needs safety googles, two seconds later a metal fragment got past my regular glasses and embedded itself in my right eye. That's ok, it's come out on it's own before, I don't need to go to the hospital this time.

One day later it's not coming out and I head to the ER, you know it's not good when the doctor looks in your eye and says to the nurse get me a 22 gauge needle. Fortunately my eye was numb but I could still feel him working the needle and really had a good look at it. The punchline is that I have to go back tomorrow to get the rest out and to "GRIND OUT" the rust ring it left.

Do I really need to tell you the moral of this story?

Ron

[Palf70Step]

Ouch! And definitely agree. Too many time of little irations from cutting, grinding etc... Sounds like you'll be OK, glad it wasn't worse and you didn't wait longer.

[LUV2XCLR8]

OUCH

[71SWBChevy]

I wear goggles ever since I was taking apart my parts truck and launched a wrench straight at my head by putting a 3/4 inch impact on the bottom side thinking the pillar would hold the wrench. As I lay there semi unconscious on the shop floor I realized that a half inch lower and I would have a glass eye today.

[Longhorn Man]

been there... they used a little tiny buffer to remove about 4 layers of the cornea to get the rust rings off my eye. Mine landed dead center in my right eye, and I have degraded vision in it now.

[Canadian694x4]

Ron glad to hear it wasn't worse. Hopefully you won't see any vision impairment from this down the road.

I now work in an industry that likes to stress the need for everyone to always wear their PPE (Personal Pertective Equipement) and they like to extend that message to include what you do around home in your time off. Which is nice too because they actually allow employees to take stuff like safety glasses and gloves home after a job is done which gives guys no excuse that they don't have any lying around IMO.

I know I got lots

[GREASEMONKEY72]

i always wear glasses especialy after one time useing the wirewheel on the grinder and thankfully i was wearing glasses but i felt one of the wires come off and hit the glasses so hard that it actually kinda hurt, but i just thought that as hard as it hit it wouldve gone through my eye

but when useing the grinder i always wear glasses and earplugs

[87 STEPPER]

When i was going to Aircraft maintenance school 25 yr's ago they beat it into you and show you all the blood and gore movies to drive the point home!

Well it worked for me and every time i use any power tool on go the OSHA approved safety glasses.That are supplied free at work and that brings up another thing if you get caught doing something that requires safety glasses and your not wearing them ya get sent home.

I just rebuilt the front end of my Tahoe this saturday and i had to grind the rivits off the upper ball joints and i still had some junk get passed the bottom of the glasses i was wearing but i allway keep eye flush solution on hand for that.

Well good luck i hope your eye will be ok and your vision will be normal.

[70c10]

I'm very guilty of not wearing safety glasses when I do stuff. I'm definitely going to be more careful. Glad your ok Ron.

[ronh72c10]

The metal fragment hit off center but still in the colored area, I'll ask the doctor tonight if there's going to be any permanent damage. From what the nurse said the rust ring is actually worse than the metal fragment.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

OK, needle session two complete. Session three tomorrow. It would have been drill session today but it didn't want to work so he went with the needle again.

Unfortunately I forgot all of my questions when I saw the large thermos labeled eye container on a shelf, it could have been worse.

Ron

[Frizzle Fry]

Wow, this just happened to me too over the weekend! I'm off work this week because of it. I WAS wearing safety glasses. Now I am going to get real GOGGLES that seal to the face. I feel your pain man. Literally...

[ronh72c10]

Ok third session done without any need to dig any more rust out. There's still a small discoloration, but it's off center and unlikely to affect my vision unless the pupil is fully dialated.

And fortunately no permanent damage.

Ron

[Canadian694x4]

Good to hear Ron. Stay safe Buddy.

[retodd7711]

Close call. Glad you're ok. I got a bug in my eye on a motorcycle. ER visit and a week of eye patch. Scared me straight.

[hdflstf]

One I remember from a few years back is a guy was using a nail gun to attach some gutters to the fascia boards. He shot a nail and it hit a nail already in the fascia board. IT BOUNCED! and came right back at him. Hit his safety goggles and went about 1/2 inch through them. Just short of hitting his eye. He'd likely be dead if he wasn't wearing the safety goggles.

[bad6772]

sorry to hear about this, i have had both my eyes drilled for metal that was in them , and rusted i didnt even know metal was in there but it started hurting pretty bad . so i went to get it handled.. i always wear saftey glasses at home and at my shop... its a must you get 2 write ups and the third time your OUT....

[sleepyboy]

[QUOTE=ronh72c10;2152220] The punchline is that I have to go back tomorrow to get the rest out and to "GRIND OUT" the rust ring it left.

Been there, NOT FUN!

[68K20 x Drill]

I got a bit of undercar rust in the eye.
I couldn't get it out, and neither could my buddy.
So when I get to the ER, The doc gets out his 'eye spud' junk removing tool, pokes and prods for a minute, and says,"this isn't going to cut it"
He goes to his Craftsman toolbox and comes back with a small FLATHEAD SCREWDRIVER and tells me to hold still and look straight at him.
It was one of the toughest acts of will I have ever done, but he deftly popped the metal scrap out in no time.
Lucky for me, no lasting effects.