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.

[grayw0lf]

Ouch! Glad it'll be okay.

Those wire wheels can be dangerous. After picking many wires out of my arms/chest/face, I only use a full faceshield or goggles.

[coloradosean2009]

Wow. Lucky and unlucky all in the same day. I am glad you will be ok.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Ouch!!!!!! That reminds me to wear my fullface shield..

[dammitmitchell]

wow.. moneyshot...
haha.. dude that sucks!

[usmcchevy]

Um, Ouch! I would have pulled it out not even thinking about my eye deflating.

[fun in dirt]

Dang! That is wild that it actually got between your safety glasses & respirator.
If you don't mind, I'll save your pic & use it in one of my safety meetings here at work for a "why to wear a face shield" talk.

[Papaloo]

I don't mind that at all. I would like others to learn from what happenned to me. Atleast then some good can come of it.

[fun in dirt]

THANKS - I'll send a link to a few other safety folks too, so they can maybe use it. I just showed this to my co-worker. He freaked! Then admitted he never even wears safety glasses grinding He is an office type person here & not doing anything like that on the job (= my responsibility), but how stupid is that I think your pic got the point across to him pretty good.

[Papaloo]

My dad used to be a union machinist and would always chaffe at management when they would make a point of forcing him to wear safety glasses. He would always take them off as soon as the manager would walk away. One day, right after he was forced to put them on, a piece of metal flew up and melted itself into the safety glasses right in front of his pupil. He still has that pair of safety glasses and he's never gone without wearing his PPE since then. He's now the union safety coordinator for his building.

Personally, I've always worn my PPE and when I used to work at a steel mill, I was always getting on peoples' cases for ignoring safety rules (lock out tag out, PPE, work zone cleaniness, etc). I always tried to convince people that the work would take quite a bit longer if they were blind/deaf/missing limbs than what it would take to just follow proper safety procedures. I couldn't imagine something getting under my safety glasses lke that wire did, so that really caught me off guard. I've already ordered a pair of high quality full face shields to join the dozen pairs of safety glasses I have spread around my work area.

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

WOW damn dude that's pretty intense for sure! Glad it wasn't worse hope you have a speedy recovery. Ya I usually always wear mine and there's a good reason why!

[LEEVON]

Wow glad it didn't get your pupil. I can only imagine what a couple nights at the eye hospital are going to cost you and that must be painful. Stitches in your eye? Ouch.

I quit using wire wheels a few years ago after one went through my glove into the end of a finger.

I'm very thankful for all the training I've gotten during my construction career, makes me wonder how I made it before. I wonder what my neighbors think when they see me funny when they see me grinding with ear muffs, safety glasses, face shield, leather gloves and welding sleeves.

[70C10Toejam]

Ow ow ow!

Glad it was not more serious than that. I agree with usmcchevy, I think I would have pulled it out on gut reaction. Good control on not doing that. All the best on a full recovery.

[Effeckt]

Holy crap! I would have been freaking out if that happened to me. What are the odds of that getting in that good around the safety glasses? That's insane. Glad you came out okay in the end... just wow.

[kev2809]

damn thats crazy. i had a similar problem except i wasnt wear googles lol

the infamous wire broke off and got stuck right between my eyeball and that pink thing in the corner of your eye, but didnt pierce anything. it kinda got wedged in between the 2, i got real lucky that day...

[Deaol]

Wire wheels / Thinner cut off discs scare me..

Funny my laundry washer trap was full of bits and pieces of a wire wheel.. things just spray.. don't think it matters the quality..

Good to hear that nothing major was damaged.

[Papaloo]

I thought I'd give a quick update to everyone:

As strange as it may sound, I was incredibly lucky. There's a narrow band of hard tissue in the eye that holds the lens in place. That band of tissue has no nerves and few blood vessles. The wire entered the eye in that band and the bend of the wire kept it in that band. If the wire had missed that band, it would've hit the lens or retina. Either would have seriously compromized my vision. As it stands, I am now off the antibiotics with no signs of infection, the sutures in my eye have dissolved, the soreness is gone, the redness is almost gone and my vision has returned to what it was prior to the accident.

[dan76]

Good to read of your progress.

I too became a believer in eye protection when a former neighbor knocked on my door one morning and asked me to drive him to the ER. Sticking out of the corner of his eye was a short length of bright orange trimmer line. However he was not as fortunate as you as he lost the sight in the affected eye. He was a Viet Nam vet with massive scarring in his upper chest and arms from a mortar hit. He always told me how ironic it was for him not to lose his eye sight while in combat but to lose it while trimming the grass.