If you have ever accidentally super-glued any part of your body, then you know that once it’s on, there is almost no getting it off. Which is why getting it in your eye sounds almost worse than any torture one can imagine. Sadly that is exactly what happened to one woman in Florida.
Katherine Gaydos told ABC News affiliate WPBF-TV that the incident happened after she got debris in her eye while cleaning up fall leaves. She asked her friend to get some Visine and then, because the bottles looked similar, her friend put super glue in her eye instead.
“As soon as I felt it in my eye I felt it burn and I closed my eye and screamed ‘Call 911,’” she told WPBF-TV.
The sad thing is, this isn’t terribly uncommon. There are a few visits every year to the ER for this mistake. And it’s true. Look at a bottle of Visine and then at a bottle of super glue. They actually look disturbingly similar.
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It’s easy enough to mock this woman or her friend (seriously, can you imagine the guilt?), but it’s also so possible that in the moment, with the chaos and pain, this is the kind of mistake that could happen to any of us. None of us should feel it couldn’t.
So what does that mean in terms of safety? It’s fairly obvious. Be incredibly mindful when choosing to put anything in your eyes. Even eye drops themselves can get crusty or studded with debris in the bottom of a purse. Make sure you store drops in a safe, clean place and only put drops in your eye if you know what they are. We all know eye pain is so immediate and annoying (and you can’t see) so you will be fumbling. Maybe it’s a better idea to know exactly where your eye drops are and not have them near anything even remotely resembling that bottle.
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It’s a truly unfortunate story and let’s hope doctors are able to help Gaydos in the way she needs. My heart goes out to her.
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