Eye care in the community: Blunt trauma injury to the eye

During the lockdown, we were all encouraged to exercise and keep fit in general. Lots of us tried walking, running and cycling to keep fit. Others tried resistance exercises, to build up muscle and tone arms and legs. Here I describe an incident of blunt trauma to an eye due to resistance band recoil.

At the start of the lockdown, 25-year-old male, MB, was undertaking routine strength exercises using a resistance band. Ingeniously, he tried to use a wooden cricket stump to perform the arm resistance work out. Unfortunately, the wooden stump snapped and the resistance band recoiled at great speed and with force upon his left eye. He ‘blanked out’ for a few seconds and could not remember the actual moment of impact, but came round to a very painful, swollen left eye through which he was unable to focus. The patient’s mum rang our practice late in the evening to report the incident. My advice was to go straight to Western Eye hospital and he was seen there as an emergency admission.