So.

Last week I was grinding something for "two seconds". And I slipped with the grinder, and a bunch of rust hit me in the face.

I got a piece of rust in my eye.

I washed my eyes out. Stung for a bit.

Next day, it stung a little worse. I washed my eyes out again. My eyes were wicked sensitive to light.

Went to the hospital. They took the rust out with a small needle and q-tip.

Next day I went to the eye specialist. They had to drill the 'rust ring' out of my cornea with some small dremel like thing.

I went back two days later, more drilling.

I went back today. Exam. I have a hole in my eye, major scarring.

I have to go back next week for a checkup.

My vision in my eye is slightly impaired. It may all come back. Might not.

I'm still a little sensitive to light, and it's a little stingy now and then. Kinda hard to drive in the afternoon as the sun makes me squint big time.


So when your grinding, cutting, whatever. Be careful.

-- Joe

 

holy crap! thats terrible, really hope you dont loose some eyesight! I dont use proper eye protection as much as i should, im going to have to pick up some new glasses/goggles

 

unfortunately i learned the same lesson. now when grinding, safety glasses and a face shield. hope it works out for ya.

 

Man that sucks! I was using a 4" grinder with some cheap Harbor Freight grinding wheels.. Well it chunked and got me in my left eye. Just hurt like heck. I was also wearing safety glasses. Went up under them. Just enought to hurt like hell no Hospital for me. Always wear a face shield too!!

 

I set my hair on fire far too often when grinding/cutting. Never gotten anything lodged in my eye, even though I don't use eye protection as much as I should either. I'll take the warning though and track down my protection. That just stinks and I do hope you get better.

 

That sucks man, hope you fully recover soon. Like it or not we are all guilty of doing soemthing like this and not using proper protection. And it usually takes something like that happening before we wise up. Interesting how that works like that.

 

I just ordered something like this. The sales guy garanteed that i would get nothing into my eye. He said they seal right up agains your face..

http://www.biztrademarket.com/User/1...%9C%AC_sro.jpg

Even if they look like this i don't care. Im not taking chances with my eyes anymore. its to frigging painfull.. They were not much more than a good pair of saftey glases

http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j0...87-P-3988-.jpg

 

You should always have respect for any type of tool that's rotating that fast, especially one with a blade attached to it.

Took a grinder w/cutting wheel to the leg 2 years back because my company was too cheap to send out some extra cutting wheels and my foreman insisted we use oversized ones he got from the fitters. Resulting in the need to remove the guard. 6" wheels on a 4.5" angle grinder with no guard. Smart eh? So with only about 4" of space for two hands... well I snagged a piece of metal and it took off out of my hand, glanced off my leg and hit the floor.

I was lucky. Fairly shallow cut. Only required 9 stitches or so. But even a shallow cut like that required about 10 shots of local and some intense scrubbing with a plastic scrub brush to get the grinding media out, and then they had to stitch it loosely to prevent trapped particles that might have been missed from being sealed inside, causing infection. So I probably could have had more stitches. I have a nice scar from it to show the ladies, but again, I was lucky.

I will NEVER again compromise my safety again for an employer by doing something I don't feel comfortable doing safely and if they want to get me in trouble for it, that's what lawsuits are for.

Always have respect for your tools. Weld with a respirator, don't do the "close your eyes and tack" sh*t, wear ear plugs, good gloves, steel toes when doing heavy fab, and ALWAYS wear good eye protection that you're satisfied with. If they fog up too much and you don't want to wear them, buy some anti-fog or get a pair that fits better.

Most of us will have a lot of time on this earth. Do you want to spend it crippled, or be able to enjoy the positive things that come your way?

Mathius

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me working on my camaro. I had the car on a lift and was putting a grounding strap on the back of the passenger side cylinder head. It was dark and the safety goggles were making it hard to see. I was looking up when the rust fell off the head and hit me in the eye. I washed my eye out in the eye wash station and went on with my business. Two days later I get intense pain in the eye and it wont stop crying. I go to ER and got the exact same treatment. They drilled my eyeball three times and said "well thats all we can do. There is still some rust in there but if we grind the eye anymore we'll cut thru it."

I had problems seeing anything at 2 oclock. My sight did fully recover after about 4 months.

I worked in an aircraft salvage yard some years ago. Had a friend working there beating an actuator out of a landing gear. A small sliver of metal went in his eye bounced around and came out the side. Its been a year and a half and his right eye is still jacked. I think hes got another 6 months before they will do the other surgery to repair his vision. After seeing that happen I don't do any kind of work with out the glasses. Man that eyeball juice is GROSS!

 

Thanks guys.

I've got another checkup tomorrow morning. So far, when I lay down at night, or get up in the morning my eye is irritated.

My biggest complaint at this point, is how sensitive it is to the light. I'm having issues driving. I'm wearing sun glasses when I drive at this point, but it still bothers me.

Did you have a sensitivity to light? If so, how long before that went away?

-- Joe

 

Oh man, hope you're OK Joe....

I had a simular thing happen to me, a sliver of metal stuck within a millimeter of my pupil. Had to be taken to a specialists. I got lucky...could've been blinded in one eye, and I was just around when someone else was grinding....

 

I wasn't very sensitive to light. It went away pretty quick. I think your affected area is a lot closer to the cornea than mine was. Mine was way over on the right side.

 

Thanks guys.

I went back to the doctor yesterday for the checkup. They said some more rust came to the surface. A little more grinding and scraping. Taking an anti inflamatory eye drop, and an antibiotic eye drop.

Doctor said to come back in a week for another checkup. He then said it will probably be about 2 months for this to completely heal. He said towards the end he will put me on a steroid drop to attempt to reduce the size of the scar.

All this over a rusty wheel well on a farm truck. Safety shields from now on.

-- Joe

 

Mine is in the 12 o'clock position, right above the dead center of my eye.

-- Joe

 

Best of luck with it healing, eye injuries are not cool at all.

Doesnt need to be a grinder. My friend was working on a car (worked for Ford) using the appropriate service tool for replacing serpentine belts and the tool broke off and sent a sliver of metal flying and right into his eye. He was even wearing eye protection but they were not full coverage so it flew in right beside the lens. So if you're going to go so far as to wear something, make sure your eyes are completely safe.

 

General rule of thumb where I work is safety glasses with goggles or faceshield while gringing. Bet the doctor costs more than a lifetimes worth of either. Makes you appreciate your sight a little more, imagine not being able to see anything you cherish anymore and let that motivate you do be safer. I hope everything goes right and your vision returns to normal.

 

Ouch. I'm hope you get better soon.

 

Thanks!

I went to the eye doctor again today for a checkup. Looks like the rust is all gone now. I'm off the meds, but on a lubricating drop. I have a huge scar. They said the scar is there for life. But my vision has returned to normal.

Face shield or goggles from now on..

Thanks again for the kind words everyone. Stay safe guys!

-- Joe

 

glad to hear your eyesight is back.

 

Good to hear.

This post really deserves sticky status. If it prevents just one person from ending up with some permanent eye damage its worth it.

 

Glad to hear it man. Eye injuries are scary.

 

Eye injuries are no laughing matter, sucks for you, but should have had your safety glasses on. I've done something similar in the past and now have to wear contacts due to the fact. I now always wear my safety glasses when I do anything similar. Hope you get better soon, and get you some safety glasses dude!

 

mine wasn't so great either but it wasn't from metal it was from machining coolant at work a long time ago somehow the machine splashed it out of the back of the holding tank and infected the hell out of my eye, like a dumazz though I didn't say anything just rinsed it and went back to work then had to call my eye doctor on Saturday night and go see him on Sunday and he said "well lets get it tested and they did the scraping for the culture test and the specilist said" I have never seen it this bad so that was nice but I got a good size scar in mine too but luckily it was out of the center so it didn't really bother me too much but it hurt like a mf when it first hppened I couldn't open my eye more or less see. made it fun for around 4 months.

 

the human eye is one of the fastest healing parts of the body

 

Which is good as it is also one of the most vulnerable.

 

boy still waiting for the local shop to get me those glases... I now have about 5 diffrent pair of saftey glasess and just went out and got a set of goggles teh other day after working under the truck and spending a hour digging crap out of my eye after teh wind picked up and blew a bunch of crap my way. teh goggles will do for now while im working under veh...

 

sorry about your eye man , that sucks big time i know. i agree with this being a sticky. i have gotten rust in mine from a piece of exhaust pipe being rusty on the inside while welding it. i had on a welding helmet, it popped hit me in the head ,then the shield,then my eye.had to have it removed at the eye dr. also. another thing we have to watch is spraying fluids. i have to wear glasses with bifocals built in because of carb cleaner.got both eyes.good luck ,hope it completely heals,jimmy