One-eyed grandmother nearly lost her sight after being injured by straw

Jingchu.com (Hubei Daily Online) News (Reporter Huang Tao, Intern Tu Xun, Correspondent Pei Nishang) While doing farm work in the mountains, the mother-in-law was poked in the right eye by the thatch in the field. She thought it would be fine after it was pulled out, but she never expected that not only did purulent secretions appear in the eye, but her vision also continued to decline.

The foreign body removed from the thatch. Photo provided by the correspondent

Grandma Shu, 71 years old this year, lives in Tongshan, Xianning. More than half a month ago, Grandma Shu accidentally fell while farming in the mountains. The thatch in the field poked into her right eye, and Grandma Shu immediately pulled out the thatch. Thinking that everything was fine, Grandma Shu's right eye became red and painful, so Grandma Shu went to the local health center for an anti-inflammatory injection. When her son found out, she suggested that she go to the ophthalmology hospital for a check-up. Grandma Shu was afraid of spending money and thought that the thatch had been pulled out, so the anti-inflammatory injection would be enough. Who knew that two weeks later, Grandma Shu felt that something was wrong. Her right eye was swollen, pus was flowing from the corner of the eye, and she couldn't open her eyes. Her eyes were tilted to the right and couldn't move. She couldn't see clearly. Her left eye was blind, and the only remaining right eye couldn't see clearly, so Grandma Shu hurriedly called her son to say that she wanted to go to the hospital to see her eyes. Two days later, Grandma Shu had an orbital CT scan at the county hospital, which showed that the outer eye ring of the right eye was not smooth, and the outer soft tissue and lateral rectus muscle were abnormal. Contusion and rupture of the lateral rectus muscle were considered possible. The local doctor suggested that she go to Wuhan for treatment.

Later, Grandma Shu's son took her to the Aier Eye Hospital affiliated to Wuhan University. After examination, Grandma Shu was diagnosed with right eye socket contusion and foreign body in the right eye socket.

Last week, Tu Huifang, director of the eyelid/orbital/eye plastic surgery department, performed an exploration of Grandma Shu's right eye socket. During the operation, dozens of plant foreign bodies of various sizes were removed from Grandma Shu's eye socket. Her son and grandma were shocked when they saw the thatched foreign bodies removed.

After the operation, Grandma Shu's right eye was no longer red and swollen, and there was no purulent secretion. Her vision returned to the state before the injury. "I thought that after the thatch was pulled out, there was nothing in the eye. I didn't expect to clean out so much thatch," said Grandma Shu, who lost her left eye due to glaucoma more than 10 years ago and currently only relies on her right eye to see.

Director Tu Huifang reminded that if the plant foreign body in the eye socket is not treated in time, the inflammation will spread further, leading to infection of the eyeball, causing cellulitis, orbital apex syndrome, etc., resulting in severe vision loss and blindness, and even worse, endangering the brain. She emphasized: If the eye is pierced by a plant foreign body, you should go to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible.