A woman's eye was accidentally glued shut when someone gave her super glue, mistaking it to be eye drops.
Katherine Gaydos from Florida said she got super glue into her eye when it was given to her while she was asking for eye drops to get rid of debris in her eyes.
"Something blew into my eye and I screamed for someone else to get eye drops out of my purse and they brought Super Glue," Gaydos said. When she used what she thought was eye drops, she recalled her eye feeling like it was burning and screamed for someone to call 911.
It took eight days before something could be done about her glued eye. During that time, Gaydos said she had to bear with intense pain in her eye while remained firmly shut.
Initially, the doctor at the Palm Beach Eye Center, Lake Worth, only gave her an ointment and some antibiotics because she had no money to pay for further treatment. According to Gaydos, it was only when her experience made news that a different doctor from the same office called back and was able to pry her eyelids open.
"[The doctor] put Lidocaine above and below my eye, and just pulled on it until it finally opened," Gaydos said.
The doctor assured her that her eye will not suffer permanent damage and her vision will return to normal. Gaydos is due to come back within the week to remove the rest of the glue.
Gaydos' story isn't as rare as many would think, as experts said that people mistake super glue for eye drops far too often for comfort.
Dr. Pankaj Gupta of Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, said that he had already handled multiple cases of people accidentally gluing their eyes closed.
When this does happen, Gupta advised patients to keep calm and immediately see an ophthalmologist.
"The first thing I think everyone needs to know is don't panic," Gupta said, as the eye cells will eventually loosen the super glue and slough off. Vision is also expected to return to normal after some time.
More helpful advice include reading the label of eye drops before applying them and keeping super glue in a safe place far from eye drops and other medical items.
Photo: Kyle May | Flickr
