"A 9-year-old boy was brought by his parents to our ophthalmology clinic
for evaluation of decreased vision in his left eye. Visual acuity in the
left eye was 20/100, as compared with 20/20 in the right eye.
Funduscopic examination of the left eye revealed a large macular hole
with a hypopigmented atrophic area inferiorly (Panel A). Optical
coherence tomography confirmed the full-thickness macular hole.
The child reported playing with a green laser pointer and repeatedly gazing into the laser beam... The patient’s vision has remained unchanged during 18 months of follow-up."
It would be hard to find a more devastating place for the injury than the center of the macula (maybe the optic nerve might be worse). The article doesn't say how long the exposure lasted, or what the power of the laser was.
Known problem with cheap green lasers:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR1Ku5dnbH8
OTOH - they all have warnings not to look into them - the child's parents meet my definition of criminal negligence!
Strong language. So you would bring the Greek father and mother to trial for negligence when they bought the laser from a street merchant as a toy, rather than assigning the negligence to the merchant in Thessaly? I would wonder whether the ones sold on the streets of Greece "all have warnings" on them.
DeleteYes, overly strong language. I did not follow the link and note the location.
ReplyDeleteI apologize.