I have scoured the Internet for information on eye lacerations for days, but most of my searches do not tell me what I need to know. So please don't tell me to just "search Google" as I have done so with limited results. Basically, my character suffered from an eye laceration that sliced straight through his cornea and damaged his pupil. Under the circumstances when he was injured, any medical attention he could have gotten would be limited. That rules out any kind of surgery and virtually everything else except to stop the bleeding. This type of injury would surely cause him to go blind in that eye, but what other (if any) possible long term effects are there? How well would it heal naturally? Would a scar be obvious on his eye? Would it get infected and cause him to lose the eye completely? Thanks for your help. I appreciate anything you can tell me!
If left untreated for more than a day or two, the eye would shrivel and have to be removed. If the wound wasn't immediately flushed out, infection could set in within a few hours. I knew a guy that got his eye poked out with a stick. One of the first things they did while treating the wound was pump him full of antibiotics. A possible long term effect from the injury could be that years later his eye might start falling apart on the inside. This might not be as big of a deal since he is blind in that eye. A lot of movies and tv shows like to show a person who is blind in one eye as having that eye appear 'cloudy' or milky in color. I don't know if realistically this would always happen, but I do know that an eye can look perfectly normal, but a person may still not see out of it due to nerve damage or some other complication.
Yeah I was trying to avoid the "milky" or "cloudy" look to mean blind. Sure if you have severe cataracts it will look that way but not from a blunt injury. The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that his eye would have been removed due to the fact that medical attention wouldn't be possible under the circumstances. It would have likely gotten infected and to save from worse conditions would have been removed. Not unlike a severe arm or leg injury results in the loss of the limb because modern surgery isn't feasible at the moment. Better to lose your limb then lose your life.
since the 'pupil' is only the 'opening' in the iris, i don't see now it can be 'damaged'... the pupil is only the absence of the iris, as the iris opens...
The pupil is the opening of the eye that allows light to pass through to hit the lens. The iris dilates and constricts around the pupil due to the presence of light (or possibly drug induced or through brain injury). It is more than just the "absence of iris." But that is not the point of this thread.
once the aqueous humor is gone the eye is done...medics would cover both eyes enroute to the hospital to avoid sympathetic movement...but it's probably done...
What do you mean by "done?" Do you mean the eye will have to be removed or just that the vision will be gone?
I looked up the functions of aqueous humor and they are as follows: -- Provides internal pressure that maintains the sphere shape of the eyeball -- Provides nutrition for the tissues within the eye -- Defend against pathogens Based on this, it seems to me that without this, the eyeball would shrivel up and need to be removed.
Milky or cloudy traditionally mean cataracts, but a serious infection of the eye would fill the eye with puss(green or white), and would swell out of the socket. Not a pretty sight, and would seem terribly painful. Infection could spread to the other eye, and to the brain. Blood in the eye would turn the eye red, if the eye has a hole in it, it will not heal without modern medicine including antibiotics. That is why the pirates wore eye patches. Just like a scratch or cut the eye can seal the hole, but even a scratch can become infected, antibiotic eyedrops. Infection can render the eye blind.
