On 2/16/2012 2:51 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
On Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:57:56 +0000, Tegger wrote:
A guy I knew years ago was using a chisel without wearing goggles. He
ended up with a chip in his eye and had to go to emergency.

When removing the chip, the guy had to be AWAKE, EYES OPEN. The doctor
said, "Whatever you do, don't move your eyes or blink". So my friend was
forced to watch as the doctor dug around in the white of his eye to
remove the chip.

Yeah, I had it happen to me with a small piece of debris when using an
angle grinder last year - I had safety glasses on, but somehow whatever-
is-was still managed to get around them and into my eye.

At the hospital I was expecting some sort of high-tech solution, but they
wheeled out this ancient light / magnifying device, put some numbing
drops in my eye, and then used a broken piece of wooden stick to dig the
thing out.
Often use stain that shows up under UV light to spot corneal abrasions.
The "broken stick" was probably a cotton-tip applicator, the cotton
being the business end.

Apparently eyes heal really fast. I had some antibiotics for a couple of
days, and it was all back to normal within four or five.

Luckily it was a stone or a piece of paint or something of that nature -
apparently metal's worse because it can rust prior to removal and cause
all sorts of problems.

An abrasion can start "healing" to the lining of the eyelid. Ouch!
Rust can cause staining of the cornea, so needs prompt attention.

cheers

Jules

I took care of a guy who turned on his lathe with allen wrench in
place...the lathe turned, hung up, and then let the allen wrench fly.
Busted the guy's safety glasses....there was blood coming from under his
lid when he got to my office, so shipped him out pronto to the ER. He
had glass in his eye, small abrasion to the inside of his lid and no
injury to the eye itself. Lucky as heck!

Any foreign body needs prompt attention. If it can't be rinsed out
quickly, the eye should be covered until one gets to the doctor; patch
keeps the eye from moving and causing further abrasion.