It Takes Just a Second
By Kevin Estela
With a single swipe of a machete, a green branch under tension swung back at me and impacted my right eye. Instantly, I was on the ground with searing hot pain, automatic uncontrollable tearing, and regret I didn’t protect my eyes. The stick abraded my cornea and would lead to months of treatment. My story is a precautionary tale as this can happen to the most seasoned woodsman. A fair trade off is giving up seconds of work to put on eye protection to avoid lasting problems. The details of the pre and post script provide valuable insight and since our minds remember narratives, let mine install a good habit or two.
In 2009, I was hired by the History Channel to be an on-air subject matter expert for a promotional video series for a show called “Expedition Africa”. We filmed the “Survival Tips” series over two days not far from where I lived in Connecticut. Day one was interview format in a garage converted to look like a cabin and day two was scheduled to be in the field where I would serve as a technical advisor behind the scenes. After a successful first day of filming and after we wrapped, I asked the landowner if there was an area on the property where I could harvest wood to make the traps and tools featured on day two. I was directed to a pile of cut brush and told I could use anything there. With the sun down and darkness settling in, I worked quickly and with urgency to accomplish what I could to have an easier day the following morning. Unable to tell the difference between the green wood mixed in with the seasoned, I cut the green and made some unexpected history.
Leading up to that eye injury, there were corners cut. Instead of relying on my own senses to determine all of the wood in that pile was seasoned, I relied on a recommendation I never verified. Working in the twilight hours without a headlamp, I relied too much on confidence and not enough on the right gear. Of course, the greatest mistake was not wearing eye protection. When the stick hit me, it introduced non-sterile debris into my eye. A quality set of eye pro with clear lenses could have deflected the stick to my cheekbone or perhaps the upper part of my orbital cavity around my eyebrow. Instead of doing the right thing, I did the expedient thing and it cost me. Perhaps another mistake was not having any immediate first-aid equipment on me to treat the eye injury. All I could do in the moment was put the flat of the machete blade against my eye because it was cool and soothing. After collecting myself, I walked to the production crew and luckily a doctor trained in wilderness medicine was also being interviewed by the show. Using a water bottle with a hole poked in the cap, the doctor rinsed my eye and examined it under the light of the garage. He didn’t see any debris and told me to get home safely. I was also told I should eventually see an eye doctor. That night, I made that appointment sooner than planned.
Before I fell asleep for the night, I took a couple ibuprofen for the pain. I couldn’t determine if it hurt my eye more to keep it open or closed. I placed a cold compress over my eye and managed to sleep until approximately 2 or 3 in the morning. At that time, I couldn’t tolerate the pain any longer. I called a friend from high school as her father was a family friend and optometrist. I asked if she could reach out to him and she connected us. I drove over to his office and he met me in casual clothing at the door. We walked to his office and he instructed me to take a seat behind an apparatus for a vision examination. When he looked through the other side of the device and into my eye, he remarked I cut my cornea badly. He said the laceration ran horizontally and each time I opened and closed my eye, it was the equivalent of having a cut across the back of your hand and putting it in and out of your pants pockets. The doctor wiped my eye with a swab, gave me specific instructions to keep it protected the second day of filming, and told me to lubricate it with artificial tear drops. I did all of the above.
That second day of filming, I wore sunglasses to cover the redness of my eye from the crew and sunlight from the picture-perfect day from my eye. After a full-day of filming, I returned to the doctor’s office where he placed an eye patch over my eye and told me I couldn’t remove it for over 24 hours. He told me there could be partial vision loss and I needed to let my eye heal and by heal it meant scar over. That period of time felt like an eternity. The protective words of my father from childhood echoed in my head “Careful! You don’t want to go blind.” Closing one eye, you can imagine what life is like when half of your vision is taken from you. Half taken from you in a blink of an eye. Pardon the expression. After the down time, the good doctor removed the eye patch and examined my eye. He said I was lucky as any deeper cut to the cornea could have been permanent vision loss. Relief is not strong enough of a word to describe knowing my mistake didn’t alter my life in a dramatic way. For six months after the incident, I had to apply antibiotic drops to my eyes twice a day. For another six after that, I had to continue using artificial tears to avoid irritating the injury. It was a small price to pay for my vision and a lesson I’d never wish upon anyone.
To this day, when I am slightly dehydrated, I can still feel the scar on my cornea catch as my eyelid slides over it. Some mornings, I have to use my fingers to manually open my eye and there are days when there is a persistent pain in my eye like a stinging sensation similar to getting sweat or salt water in it. The human eye is incredibly resilient but it is also incredibly sensitive. There is no way to build up muscle around the eye or condition it the way we can the rest of our body. What we can do is cover it with a protective layer whenever there is a chance our vision is at risk. My incident happened even though I have been working with machetes, axes, and chainsaws for years. Accidents happen to trained and untrained alike. It is easy to take for granted what we’ve never been forced to live without. I’m thankful for my eyesight and health everyday and I consider eye protection an invaluable part of my kit for I know what life is like without it.
