This Boy Lost 75% Of His Vision Because Of Small Toy, Check If You Have It In Your House

This Boy Lost 75% Of His Vision Because Of Small Toy, Check If You Have It In Your House

One Tasmanian teenager has finally shown why all the labels should be read on dangerous toys. Though parents often don’t take a second guess about what they are giving to their children in many but the extreme cases, this teen’s story should make that the norm for all dangerous toys.

He had gotten hold of a pen with a laser pointer on it. Though the boy did not feel any pain when he did it, he managed to burn his eyes. How? He had shone the little laser pointer into his eyes for a few seconds. Despite the lack of pain, the damage had been done and the effects of that damage were seen almost immediately in his vision.

The damage he had inflicted upon himself happened in a small area of the eye called the macular. This is where detailed central vision happens. The macular is located near the retina of the eye, but why he has lost his vision is part of what makes this story so heartbreaking. The macular is one area that cannot be fixed – even with surgery.

The optometrist he saw has noted that some of his vision can be recovered once the swelling goes down and once the other side effects subsided. However, he will always be visually impaired. The teen now has about 25% of his vision previous to the incident because the optometrist says it’s highly unlikely even half of the damage will subside and reverse itself.

If you’re having trouble grasping how the damage is going to affect this teen, think of the macular like an important piece to a film camera that has been broken. You can put a different lens on to try and fix it for hours, and go through many lenses, but the damage will remain. Therefore, even with glasses, this teen will not be able to get around the damage the laser pointer inflicted to his macular.

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With this tragic story, his optometrist has renewed a call for every parent to think again about giving their children a laser pointer. If they do decide to go through with the purchase and gifting of such a gift to their children, it is advised that they supervise the use of it incredibly carefully. The other thing to do is to simply not buy a laser pointer for a child.

This is the biggest reason behind the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health issuing warning stickers. Every laser pointer should have a proper label that indicates how powerful it is. Those between three and five milliWatts have not caused any reported cases of vision damage.

However, there are always those that get around this and improperly label the laser pointer – whether on purpose or accidentally. Many that do not have a proper label are improperly imported from other areas and therefore exceed the federal limits, and need the wrong label to be sold.

Unfortunately, children and teens will always be curious. In this holiday season, optometrists plead with parents not to purchase laser pointers. This case of vision loss should only act as a reason not to buy one or supervise them, and should not be disregarded.

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