With Fourth of July celebrations just around the corner, it is a good time to remind ourselves about the safe handling of fireworks. Eye injuries are the second most commonly injured part of the body. Tom Weingeist, MD, an ophthalmologist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, talks about eye injuries caused by fireworks:
What kinds of fireworks cause eye injuries?
The reality of it is, any fireworks, including sparklers that little children run around with and have very intense temperatures, can injure the eye; but the most common fireworks injury that we see that causes the most damage is bottle rockets, because they’re very erratic, they can blow up the bottle dispersing glass, and because sometimes those who are using them get impatient because they haven’t fired off, go to them to see whether the fuse is lit, and then they get struck.
Who is usually affected by eye injuries involving fireworks?
All age groups are affected, but the most common are young teenage boys and young men.
There really is no safe way for children to play with fireworks. Let’s go through a couple of possible scenarios and let parents know what treatment should be.
Glass or metal from a bottle rocket strikes your child’s eye. There is no bleeding and the pain goes away quickly. What steps should be taken? If there’s any indication that there might be an injury to the eye or the eyelid, the safest thing is to get the child to an emergency room where an ophthalmologist can evaluate the child, because some of these injuries don’t look especially bad, but glass can actually penetrate through the eyelids or into the eye and cause a potentially blinding injury.
Every person who’s involved in a fireworks injury has to be very, very cautious about rubbing the eye, not irrigating it; we encourage people who are bringing a so-called victim into the ER not to allow the child or young adult to be able to drink or eat anything in case they need anesthesia later on.
After an eye injury, your child is in terrible pain and really wants to rub the eye. Parents should kind of keep those same guidelines in mind? Exactly, and avoid rubbing the eye. The best and the safest thing is to take the child to an emergency room, because even an ophthalmologist in his office might not have all of the equipment necessary and would be better off seeing the child in an emergency room setting.
If a child or adult has been hit by an exploding bottle rocket, sparkler or any fireworks device, what can be done before going to an emergency room?
Again, I would avoid rubbing and I would not irrigate. The child should not eat or drink anything. If it’s a young child, the parents should watch and hold the child’s hand so they don’t rub the eye.
I’d like to mention that we all love to see fireworks and probably the safest and best way is to go to one of the certified fireworks displays and take advantage of the ones that are seen in this area. I know they are an annual event and they’re beautiful to watch, and very seldom does anybody get into trouble watching them, but even those, people should be careful after the fireworks explode in the air and has all the brilliant colors; be careful, if they’re near by, not to get some of the cinders in their face.
What sort of pain reliever is safe to use on the way to the emergency room?
In general, they usually don’t need anything and certainly wouldn’t have any eye drops to relieve pain. Even when eye injuries are severe, they’re not usually associated with a lot of pain. Just like burns on the body, if it’s a superficial kind of abrasion on the cornea, yes, that can be painful. Analgesics are really not going to help that, so I think in general, no medicines, let the professionals take care of that. |
