DIY Problems

The DIY season has barely started and already I am regularly seeing patients who have ignored all advice and have managed to injure their eyes. The most common problem I see is small shards of metal embedded in patients’ corneas. The cornea is the main lens of our eyes and, if damaged or injured, can dramatically reduce our ability to see clearly. The prime reason for this sort of injury is hammering, chipping or grinding metal without using eye protection.

If you were a tradesman working in such an environment you would be legally obliged to wear appropriate safety equipment, including eye protection, provided at no charge by your employer. Most patients I see with eye injuries are working age and would never dream of risking their eyes at work, not least because failing to wear their safety glasses could have them instantly fired …BUT … they are seemingly oblivious to the dangers of DIY at home.

Hitting a steel nail with a hammer can cause small fragments of nail to break off and fly through the air at extremely high speed. Do any of you remember doing physics at school? Force equals mass times acceleration. So a very small fragment of metal travelling at very high speed can strike your eye with tremendous force. If you are lucky the metal will embed itself in your cornea. If you are unlucky the small fragment can penetrate inside your eye. Last year I had a patient who lost an eye in a freak accident when a tiny fragment of metal penetrated deep into their eye.

In virtually all cases use of proper eye protection will dramatically reduce the resultant injury, if not totally prevent it. Putting on safety glasses takes seconds and could save you from a lifetime of blindness!