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During the
last baseball season my nurse called out:
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are sending a
player over. He has an eye injury...
I realize that any injury to a
professional athlete could be a
career-ending injury. Since clear vision
and depth perception are so critical to
everyone, especially athletes who play at
the elite levels of the Devil Rays and
basketball's NCAA Final Four, I realize we
must all work together to prevent
blindness and restore sight.
Being a team doctor is an exciting
position. I deal with healthy patients who
want to get better. I am very lucky and
fortunate to work with such a motivated
and dedicated staff and fellow team
doctors. They want and need their players
and staff to receive immediate care to
prevent blindness and restore sight. They
realize that delay in treatment could
result in career-ending problems.
Weekend athletes should not treat their
eyes with any less urgency or priority.
Instead of procrastinating with an injury
due to sports, and taking a chance of
letting that damage get worse, they should
see an eye doctor promptly.
My staff and I were prepared for anything:
a bat, ball or cleat injury to the eye.
Was it Wade? Fred? Jose? They had all had
perfect exams the week before.
The player who walked in minutes later was
just a kid, 21, a rookie pitcher. I'll
call him Steve.
The accident was not from a baseball
injury at all, but had occurred after a
baseball game at a victory party, when he
was hit in the eye with a water balloon.
I asked myself, "How bad could a water
balloon hurt the eye?"
It took me just one minute to realize that
in the fraction of a second that it took
that balloon to hit his eye, this young
man's life just changed forever. There was
blood in the eye, cloudiness of the lens,
damage to the retina and a dilated pupil
-- all severely blurring his vision.
The questions from this boy and his coach
came at me like a 95 mph fast ball: Will
he see? Can you save the eye? Will he ever
pitch again? Will I lose the eye?
I found myself wondering the same
questions.
I wish there were a happy ending, but
sadly, much of the damage is permanent to
Steve's eye. The eye has been saved, and
the vision restored, but his symptoms of
blurriness and glare and decreased depth
perception persist. All of this because of
a careless, freak accident. I will keep
you posted on his progress, and we all
pray for his recovery and hope his dream
of playing in the Tropicana as a starting
pitcher with the Devil Rays will come
true. |
