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UV Light Safety

Two eyes are better than none!

"I was mucking around with my spare UV. I plugged it in and checked it out after just changing the tube. Ok no problem it is ready to go for the summer.

At 11.45, I woke up with a pain in my eyes. I got up and made my way to the bathroom and splashed cold water into my eyes. It was then I realized I could not see!

Panic set in and my wife called an ambulance as the pain mounted to a level that had me rolling on the floor. It was so bad I was sure I was loosing my sight.

I arrived at the hospital still unable to see a thing. The medics although professional; were unable to give me anything to relieve the pain. A senior nurse met me at Emergency and asked me to open my eyes. I told her I couldn't so she called the only doc on duty. After some initial discussion the doc told me he would put some anesthetic in my eyes which would hurt like hell. I never felt a thing as my eyes hurt so much. He kept asking me questions about my work then asked me to go back through the things I did in the last 6 hours. I was sobbing the pain was so bad.

It was then that it hit me - the UV. I had only looked at it for 1-2 seconds when I tested the new tube. The doc explained UV blindness and stated that I may be lucky and regain all my sight in 1-2 days. I ended up with all the eyes tests my eyes have been declared permanently damaged for which I will suffer later in life I expect.

True story and the learning is never ever look at UV light."

 

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