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FrozenGate by Avery

Accidents will happen...






And that is why you need laser goggles, and a bit of common sense. The common sense part would be: Laser is powerful light. Mirror reflects light. Mirror is perpendicular to you. DON'T SHINE LASER AT MIRROR.
 
"Vision in his left eye improved from 20/50 to 20/25 after doctors gave him an injection -- directly into the eyeball -- of ranibizumab"

Just that part alone makes me sick. Too many times...safety seems secondary, until the inevitable happens
 
it is sad that the laser community is under fire but this morons parents will get off scott free.

michael.
 
chipdouglas said:
it is sad that the laser community is under fire but this morons parents will get off scott free.

michael.
Click to expand...

Sad, but true. Look what happened to us.

There should be COMPULSORY safety warnings and instructions bundled with every laser above 5mW.

The damage looks pretty bad- moreso than what would be possible with 150mW of green. Either he looked into the beam for an extended period of time, or he was unknowingly hit by IR for several seconds.

It looks more like a direct hit from a pulsed YAG.
 
A little more then spot diameter to the left in the photo and he would have damaged the optic nerve and/or blood flow to the eye. Despite the final value of 20-25, he will have major damage and distortion to his central vision in that eye,and I'm willing to bet on some interesting neurological pains as he ages.

"needle in eye" for treatment, ow!!! shudder......

Steve
 
He must have been very unlucky, or very stupid. That burn isn't caused by a short flare from a beam bouncing of a mirror when you're shining around with a laser pointer. It must have been a direct, steady hit into the eye... which is entirely possible if you are stupid enough to shine a laser at a mirror aiming to hit yourself in the eye on purpose.

I think here must be more to this story than we know. It also states he waited 2 weeks before seeking help, being affraid to piss off his parents. Perhaps he just looked straight down the barrel, but made up the mirror story so he doesnt appear THAT stupid?
 
I guess we will never know the entire truth, only the sad end result. I'm not entirely sure how the 20/x vision system works (seems to be an american thing?), but afaik 20/20 is normal while 20/200 is legally blind. He seems to be left with 20/25 - no idea how that compares to population average etc.

I'm convinced this is not the result of an accidental mirror hit though. You can try with a <5 mW (pref 1 mW) laser if you want to... just wave it around a in a laser-show like fashion in proximity to a mirror. Hitting yourself in the eye by accident is easy doing that, but its gonna be a quick sweep across the eye, much faster than the blink reflex can save you.

I suppose we should make a distinction between accident and incident: I'd call it an accident if someone is playing with a laser, shines out a window and hits himself in the face with a reflection. Obviously not a smart thing to do, but very different from purposely shining yourself in the eye for a prolongued period of time - using a mirror or not.
 
Canada uses the 20/x vision system too. Means that what most people can see at x feet away, you can see at 20 feet.

So my eyes were tested recently at 20/15. That means that if most people can read something from 15 feet away, I can read it from approximately 20 feet away. If you're more comfortable in metres, you can substitute those. I believe it's just ratios.

20/25 is a little worse than average, but not terribly. I'm not sure what legally blind is, in Canada or the US.
 
Thanks for the clarification on the 20/x system... in europe dioptres are used, both for glasses and contacts and discussing how poorly ones vision actually is.

If its compared to the population average, i supposed i'd still score about 20/20 even with -1.25 dioptres for the best eye, or perhaps 20/25 like the kid involved in this incident. Luckily i can just pop in some contacts and have better than average vision :)
 
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