Eye injuries: ‘A stitch in time saves nine’

It wasn’t a political rally but from the rowdiness, you would think it was one! It was actually a group of fanatical football supporters at a television viewing centre which also doubled as a drinking joint in a post-match commentary. And you wouldn’t believe it; the match was played thousands of miles away. Hordes of young and not-too-young supporters of the two teams were engaged in a fierce argument.

I stood by and watched. While fueled by alcohol in their system, obscenities were exchanged. At one point in time, I felt I should intervene to stop the fray. My friend tugged at my shirt and whispered in my ears, “Don’t get involved; those boys will beat you up.” Beat me up! Why?” I couldn’t imagine being beaten up just for trying to calm their frayed nerves.

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He was right because with every word exchanged, it was getting rougher and looked certain to get physical. “Don’t you dare touch me with your leprous hand,” one of the young men shouted at the other. “Don’t you dare point your poisonous finger at my face,” the other replied, lunging forward. “Dr. Ben,” my friend said, “it’s time to leave.” We quickly made our exit from the scene.

Five days later, a young man walked into my office. He gave a history of someone having poked his finger into his left eye during an argument. I immediately recognized him as one of the belligerent fanatical football fans. He was in great pain. He could hardly open his left eye and there was a copious watery discharge with some streaks of mucus and pus. The outer transparent coat of the eye (cornea) was damaged but not punctured and there was pus within the eye.

When I told him my findings and that he was in great danger of losing the eye, he pleaded, “Doctor, please don’t let me lose my eye.” “Why did you wait until now before coming?” I asked. “It wasn’t this bad on the first day. I had some grittiness in the eye and bought some eye drops at a local drug store. When there was no improvement and it began to deteriorate, I decided to come to you,” he said dolefully.

I remembered he was the one who said, “Don’t you dare point your poisonous finger at my face.” Yes, indeed our fingers are poisonous when you consider the millions of bacteria we acquire from handshakes, dirty surfaces we touch, filthy currencies we handle, pricking of our noses and total lack of attention to simple hygiene such as frequent washing of our hands with soap and water. But why did he wait for him to push his finger into his eye when he could have backed away from the arguments? I don’t seem to understand these young ones anymore!

“Have you heard the adage, ‘A stitch in time saves nine’?”  I asked. In a study I conducted several years ago, I made some interesting discoveries. Patients reported promptly to hospital in any injury to the eye where there was bleeding or moderate to severe pain irrespective of the gravity of the injury. Thus, there was quick and appropriate intervention and most of these eyes were saved.

However, nearly all injuries where there was no bleeding or just mild or no pain at the onset were considered small injuries and reported late to the hospital with subsequent poorer outcome.

The lesson here is that you are not in a position to determine the gravity of an eye injury.  Treat all eye injuries as serious and visit the eye doctor at the earliest possible time so that you can commence treatment early.

You stand a better chance of structural and functional recovery with early diagnosis and treatment.

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