Thought i'd share my story with you all.
I am an avid fisherman, have been since I was about 10 years old.
In December 2011 it was a beautiful sunny afternoon about 12:30 and I decided to go for a fish in the same spot i have fished the past 5 years. I took more gear then I usually did, a chair, castnet, bucket, tacklebox, esky cooler, 2 handreels and 2 rod and reels by myself. After 5 hours and no fish I decided to head home. As I had a lot of gear I decided just to stick my rods in my bucket, I did it with quite a bit of force as I was getting frustrated, the bottom of the rod hit the bucket my sinker hit my swivel causing my hook to come off the line guide flung up and caught me in the eye. I didn't feel it get my eyeball and thought it had gotten my in my bottom eyelid, I was just standing there with this hook dangling in my eye, I grabbed it and pulled it out, unfortunately the tip of my hook and pierced all the way to the barb into my pupil. Everything went milky as soon as I pulled it out and it felt like I had just ribbed my eyeball out of my head and had lost vision completely in my right eye, I also have Dwaynes syndrome in my left eye which is a condition where the muscle retracts my eye when I look left or right. I can only see straight out of it.
At this point I only have one eye I can only see straight out of. Home was only 500m away so I slowly made my way there. I dropped all my gear in the front yard, went inside and told my mum, by this point there was a visible split in my pupil, my eye was beaming red and swelling outwards. We gave it an hour then drove to the after hours medical centre. I had a bit of a bodgy doctor look at it, who dressed it and said it doesn't look like I need stitches but I best get to the hospital to get it checked better. But we couldn't that as I and my mum look after my grandma who is in a bad way at the moment after countless strokes and an aneurysm so we went home. I woke up in the morning with my pillow drenched from my own eye fluid leaking out of the split I had. We went to the hospital and they told me it had pierced deep and I would need to go in for surgery and get 4 stitches in my eyeball. 13 hours later I went in for surgery. Under anaesthetic the surgery went for 4 hours, an hour for each stitch that had to be put in, they were finer than a human hair. I was released the next day.
For the next 3 months I lived with an eyepatch, only being able to see straight out of one eye, having 10 eyedrops in the one eye everyday, 2 bottles I had to add 3 times a day and 2 bottles twice a day, Weekly checkups, and the worst part was I could feel the stitches in my eye, every time I moved my eye or blinked (and the fact I couldn't rub my eye) Definitely wasn't the best way to spend Christmas!. 3 months later the eyepatch came off the stitches taken out, which was by no means pleasant. I had no anaesthetic for the removing, I just had to sit there, awake with my eye pulled open, a pair of scissors. a clamp and a very steady hand at my eye. Had 2 taken out one week and 2 the next. One of the best and worst experiences of my life. Made me appreciate how precious some things we have are and not too take my health for granted. and it was definitely and experience being semi blind for 3 months! I have 80% vision back in my eye know, and it has strengthened my left eye up very nicely, it was really scary not knowing if i'd ever drive again, work again, I could of lost my vision in my eye completely if I had left it for one more day! I still have the hook in a little box. The hook getting me right in the eye of the pupil hard to believe I know, but I guess it was just bad luck!! I am back fishing now, nothing will ever stop me going fishing, but I definitely take a pair of sunglasses these days!
I am an avid fisherman, have been since I was about 10 years old.
In December 2011 it was a beautiful sunny afternoon about 12:30 and I decided to go for a fish in the same spot i have fished the past 5 years. I took more gear then I usually did, a chair, castnet, bucket, tacklebox, esky cooler, 2 handreels and 2 rod and reels by myself. After 5 hours and no fish I decided to head home. As I had a lot of gear I decided just to stick my rods in my bucket, I did it with quite a bit of force as I was getting frustrated, the bottom of the rod hit the bucket my sinker hit my swivel causing my hook to come off the line guide flung up and caught me in the eye. I didn't feel it get my eyeball and thought it had gotten my in my bottom eyelid, I was just standing there with this hook dangling in my eye, I grabbed it and pulled it out, unfortunately the tip of my hook and pierced all the way to the barb into my pupil. Everything went milky as soon as I pulled it out and it felt like I had just ribbed my eyeball out of my head and had lost vision completely in my right eye, I also have Dwaynes syndrome in my left eye which is a condition where the muscle retracts my eye when I look left or right. I can only see straight out of it.
At this point I only have one eye I can only see straight out of. Home was only 500m away so I slowly made my way there. I dropped all my gear in the front yard, went inside and told my mum, by this point there was a visible split in my pupil, my eye was beaming red and swelling outwards. We gave it an hour then drove to the after hours medical centre. I had a bit of a bodgy doctor look at it, who dressed it and said it doesn't look like I need stitches but I best get to the hospital to get it checked better. But we couldn't that as I and my mum look after my grandma who is in a bad way at the moment after countless strokes and an aneurysm so we went home. I woke up in the morning with my pillow drenched from my own eye fluid leaking out of the split I had. We went to the hospital and they told me it had pierced deep and I would need to go in for surgery and get 4 stitches in my eyeball. 13 hours later I went in for surgery. Under anaesthetic the surgery went for 4 hours, an hour for each stitch that had to be put in, they were finer than a human hair. I was released the next day.
For the next 3 months I lived with an eyepatch, only being able to see straight out of one eye, having 10 eyedrops in the one eye everyday, 2 bottles I had to add 3 times a day and 2 bottles twice a day, Weekly checkups, and the worst part was I could feel the stitches in my eye, every time I moved my eye or blinked (and the fact I couldn't rub my eye) Definitely wasn't the best way to spend Christmas!. 3 months later the eyepatch came off the stitches taken out, which was by no means pleasant. I had no anaesthetic for the removing, I just had to sit there, awake with my eye pulled open, a pair of scissors. a clamp and a very steady hand at my eye. Had 2 taken out one week and 2 the next. One of the best and worst experiences of my life. Made me appreciate how precious some things we have are and not too take my health for granted. and it was definitely and experience being semi blind for 3 months! I have 80% vision back in my eye know, and it has strengthened my left eye up very nicely, it was really scary not knowing if i'd ever drive again, work again, I could of lost my vision in my eye completely if I had left it for one more day! I still have the hook in a little box. The hook getting me right in the eye of the pupil hard to believe I know, but I guess it was just bad luck!! I am back fishing now, nothing will ever stop me going fishing, but I definitely take a pair of sunglasses these days!
