Saved by a magnet

[ohsoloco]

The other day I was out in the shed sharpening my chainsaw chain.  It's funny...as I was filing the teeth I was thinking to myself that I should probably be wearing my safety glasses.  Not long after that something flew into my eye.  Thought it would work its way out, but it wasn't going anywhere.  Went inside to check it out in the mirror, and sure enough it was a sliver of steel.

Couldn't just flick it out with my finger like I would a hunk of dirt, it was too sharp and wasn't going to come out.  Ran to the fridge and grabbed a magnet.  Held it up to my eye and it pulled the sliver right out.  I got lucky...when I was younger I had a sliver in my eye (I didn't know what it was at the time) for a week.  That wasn't any fun getting the rust dug out of my eye  :(

[ely]

LUCKY FOR YOU. i think i had a doctor tell me once as he was digging some steel from my eye, the eye is the fastest healing part of the body. if i had waited til the following day the eyeball would already healed over the damage. then it would have been like surgery to get out the crap. safety glasses are the cheepest insurance you can use.

just think what would you do if you did not have your eyes. take care of yourself cause no one else will.

[beenthere]

ohsoloco
I had the similar experience a couple years ago (and think I related that story on the Forum) while drilling steel. Just as the thought went through my head, I felt the chip hit the eye. I too grabbed a magnet and felt it pop right off. The safety goggles or glasses are on now when drilling or grinding. 
Had that rust debris too, and the eye Dr says he can still see the scar where they dug it out (as ely said, it was healed over but still painful to the lid). That was while under a car putting a magnet on a drive shaft for a cruise control system.

[logwalker]

That is a great idea. The telescoping mechanics magnets for grabbing nuts and bolts that are dropped are very powerful and should be able to grab easily. I will remember this one. Thanks, Joe

[Furby]

Just make sure the magnet is clean so you don't end up adding to your troubles eh! ;)

[tree-farmer]

good tip about the maganet, working in machine shops the past 30 years I'v picked up a few stray chips. The rust is a real bummer, doc puts your head in a vice like thing and comes at you with a tiny high speed drill and saying "don't move".

anyway what I wanted to pass on was somthing I learned years ago working with my dad building houses. We were nailing down plywood roof decking when Mr. Brown was struck in the eye with a 10 penny "zinger" (a nail hit off center enough to take flight) it hit point first and stuck deep into the side of his eye. Out of instinct he reached to pull it out but was tackeled by Bill our other helper. Bill pinned Mr. Brown down and would not let him touch the nail. We took Mr. Brown to the hospital where they removed the nail and stiched his eye ball. Had the nail been removed all the "eye filling" would have leaked out and he would have lost the eye. Bill knew this because he only had one eye due to a identical accident years before, the diffrence was that he pulled the nail out and lost the internal eye fluid and they were unable to fix it.

The moral of the story is if you get a priecing injury to the eye, do not pull the object out.
Mr. Brown and Bill worked together for a lot of year after this, and Brown was alway gratful and told the story any time we had a new crew member.

[Furby]

Actually, that applies to most all larger piercing injuries.
Stabilize the item as best you can by holding or wrapping it with a towel.
If it's a long item that can easily be shortened without causing further injury, do so.
In either case, head to the ER and let a doctor handle removal.

[ohsoloco]

I remember hearing in a first aid class about not pulling an object (like a nail or pencil) out of your eye, but without being reminded once in a while I'd still probably reach up and try to yank it out. 

Thought I'd share my story because a few years ago I was talking to a friend about getting things in my eye, and he shared the magnet trick....his dad used one to get some steel out of his eye.  Don't know if I would've thought about using one if he hadn't shared 

I still have to remember to put on my safety glasses before that little voice in my head tells me to.  It doesn't speak up until something is about to happen  :

[Handy Andy]

  I used to have a one eyed friend, he died in a car wreck, but he lost an eye taking paint off a bus with a right angle grinder with a wire wheel.  Little piece of wire came off and went straight into his eye.  His wife hauled him to the emergency room, where the doctor removed it, and still lost the stuff in his eye that caused him to see.