Please be careful doing DIY jobs during “lockdown”.  We have more time available and there are plenty of jobs in the house and around the garden that need fixing.  Today I have removed a small fragment of metal called an “intraocular foreign body” from the back of an eye.  The patient was hammering metal and a splinter of metal hit the eye and went into the main eye cavity and ended up on the retina.  He was wearing googles but they did not fit properly and the metal splinter still went through.  This is usually an infrequent operation but during the lockdown it is becoming one of the more common operations I perform.

It can cause serious damage to the eye and in severe cases the sight in the injured eye can be completely lost.  Hammering metal is at the top of the list of dangerous activities.

Please, please wear proper eye protection when doing DIY at any time but at this moment in time you really do not want to end up having a big operation under general anaesthetic in hospital with COVID 19 so prevalent.  Glasses or poorly fitting goggles are no good and will not protect you.  Get well fitted goggles

Please take care, stay safe and avoid seeing me at the moment!