MAJOR EYE TRAUMA.. wear your safety glasses!

[Boreal Overland]

Hi guys, just wanted to share a little story of what happened to me a couple months ago.

So i was working at a large industrial site together with a couple of my colleagues.
I was wearing all my needed safety gear as i always do and have done for almost 25 years..
We were almost done after a 12 hour shift working our ass off, only a half hour or so left.
Because of my facemask my safety glasses fogged up again.
I took my glasses of for just a tiny tiny moment.. BAM,
a sharp piece of plastic about 2 inch long that my colleague broke of from somewhere pierced my freakin eyeball.

Hospital, surgery, bacteria in my eye, almost lost it!
Now, more than 20 hospital appointments later, 2 major surgery's and another one coming soon.
I am very lucky still, it was dark in that eye for 1,5 month, but now have about 40% eye sight back!
Have a fixed lens implant because my own lens was f#####d.. seeing dept is hard, and so is driving now.
Still recovering but feel very strong and believe things will be better bit by bit, and like i said feel very lucky.

I posted it here in the DIY tread because i know a lot of accidents happen with DIY.


I don't want to sound like an old fart.. or a cry baby.. but please wear your freakin safety glasses!!!

It will make your next overland trip or 4wd driving experience so much better seeing the world with two eyes!

Cheers!

 

[Eric W.]

Here's to a continued speedy recovery. Glad it didn't go worse.

 

[bgenlvtex]

I'll take a detour around the low hanging maskfruit tree and just say, Speedy Recovery!

 

[Boreal Overland]

I'll take a detour around the low hanging maskfruit tree and just say, Speedy Recovery!

Those freakin face masks man.. hate them even more now!
Thanks man.

 

[Shokgoblr]

Damn! That sucks! I hope you get back to 100% soon!
I stuck needlenose in my eye working on brakes when I was 16. Thats when I learned.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

Wow. I hope you fully recover.

I've worn prescription eyeglasses since I was a kid. I get my sunglasses prescription and polarized, not glass, and coated. I find this tends to cover me most of the time, but that was a real freak accident. One for the books

 

[Boreal Overland]

Damn! That sucks! I hope you get back to 100% soon!
I stuck needlenose in my eye working on brakes when I was 16. Thats when I learned.

Nope, probably not..and lost the sence of dept because of the fixed implant lens,
but every 1%extra is a gain.

Shit happens, that’s just life we need to deal with that, there are worst things in life.
But I posted this just as a little reminder for us DIY guys that 10$ safety glasses could safe a lot of misery and a messed up eyesight for the rest of your life..

Cant wait to get out on the road again exploring the wild! Soon for sure.
Cheers.

 

[bgenlvtex]

Nope, probably not..and lost the sence of dept because of the fixed implant lens,
but every 1%extra is a gain.

Shit happens, that’s just life we need to deal with that, there are worst things in life.
But I posted this just as a little reminder for us DIY guys that 10$ safety glasses could safe a lot of misery and a messed up eyesight for the rest of your life..

Cant wait to get out on the road again exploring the wild! Soon for sure.
Cheers.

And safety glasses are downright handsome these days too!

I remember when "safety glasses" meant something that looked like your Uncle Edgar whittled them out of a bowling ball and glued some screen wire to the side of them.

 

[MazeVX]

Nope, probably not..and lost the sence of dept because of the fixed implant lens,
but every 1%extra is a gain.

Shit happens, that’s just life we need to deal with that, there are worst things in life.
But I posted this just as a little reminder for us DIY guys that 10$ safety glasses could safe a lot of misery and a messed up eyesight for the rest of your life..

Cant wait to get out on the road again exploring the wild! Soon for sure.
Cheers.

I can tell you that you can get around it and compensate that loss of depth perception with training, used to fly racing drones with fpv Googles and since you have only one camera you are flying completely without a real depth perception.
Feeling bad for that accident as a safety guy at work and someone who's wearing eyeglasses for my bad vision I'm really used to wearing eye protection all day. It's not that bad and investing in a pair of good glasses pays off multiple.
I had 3 accidents with splinters in my eyes in my younger years, one of them left some scars but luckily no real negative effects.
Cheap eye protection can get annoying quickly but there is some really good stuff available on the market.

 

[El-Dracho]

Hi guys, just wanted to share a little story of what happened to me a couple months ago.

So i was working at a large industrial site together with a couple of my colleagues.
I was wearing all my needed safety gear as i always do and have done for almost 25 years..
We were almost done after a 12 hour shift working our ass off, only a half hour or so left.
Because of my facemask my safety glasses fogged up again.
I took my glasses of for just a tiny tiny moment.. BAM,
a sharp piece of plastic about 2 inch long that my colleague broke of from somewhere pierced my freakin eyeball.

Hospital, surgery, bacteria in my eye, almost lost it!
Now, more than 20 hospital appointments later, 2 major surgery's and another one coming soon.
I am very lucky still, it was dark in that eye for 1,5 month, but now have about 40% eye sight back!
Have a fixed lens implant because my own lens was f#####d.. seeing dept is hard, and so is driving now.
Still recovering but feel very strong and believe things will be better bit by bit, and like i said feel very lucky.

I posted it here in the DIY tread because i know a lot of accidents happen with DIY.


I don't want to sound like an old fart.. or a cry baby.. but please wear your freakin safety glasses!!!

It will make your next overland trip or 4wd driving experience so much better seeing the world with two eyes!

Cheers!

First of all I wish you speedy recovery!

And thank you for sharing these experiences here and thus drawing attention to a super important topic. Because just as you said, even in the DIY area bad accidents happen again and again. And this is partly due to lack of work safety. Yes, each of us knows that: just sawed off something, just drilled a hole, just changed a wheel, etc. But please always think of your own protection before.

This also includes suitable work gloves. Not only for vehicle recovery, but also for e.g. DIY jobs and maintenance work on the rig. In the past, I didn't pay much attention to this, but sometimes something happened and at least scars were left behind. Today, for example, I have work gloves ready to hand in some corners of the vehicle, e.g. in the door tray. So you also think of it reflexively when you get out.

So, thank you again for drawing attention to this important topic here!

 

[MMc]

Wow! Thanks for the sharing of your story. I was climbing El Cap and on day 3 driving a lost arrow into a crack, I put a splinter of steel into my eye. Tired flushing and having my partner work at it it stayed there for 3 more days as we climbed the route. Never went up a wall without a set of googles. Some were safety some were skiing. The eye did heal.

 

[Boreal Overland]

And safety glasses are downright handsome these days too!

I remember when "safety glasses" meant something that looked like your Uncle Edgar whittled them out of a bowling ball and glued some screen wire to the side of them.

lol

 

[bgenlvtex]

lol

It's only funny because it's true.