After Nurses Accidentally Glued Her Eye Shut, This Mom Cut Off Her Own Lashes
After an unfortunate run-in with an exercise machine, Natasha Galbraith went for a routine trip to her local hospital to sew up a cut below her right eyebrow.
But what happened next was anything but routine - as a nurse attempted to stitch up her cut, medical glue trickled into her open eye. That was the last time she'd open her eye for the next four days.
After returning to the clinic the next day - Galbraith's daughters were distraught, fearing that their mother had lost her sight - hospital staff apologized, but told her there was nothing to be done. They prescribed regular eyes baths and claimed that the glue would dissolve on its own with five days. As for her vision, they assured her it was intact. "I didn't even know what my sight was like under it but they just kept saying in the hospital, 'Your sight is going to be okay,'" Galbraith told Belfast Live.
But bathing her eye, she said, "if anything, made it worse."
By day four, Galbraith was feeling that Christmas panic - she was basically house-ridden and couldn't venture outside to buy her family gifts. For Galbraith, drastic times called for drastic measures: With the help of a friend, she picked up a pair of nail scissors and swiftly snipped off her eyelashes. Oy.
"I was told to just let it run its course but if I had let it run it would have been over Christmas," she explained. "I had no other option."
I can think of a few other options - listening to doctors and waiting just one more day, perhaps? - none of which include bringing a blade anywhere near your peepers. But Galbraith's crazy Hail Mary worked. Her eye fluttered open. Her eyelashes, though, didn't make the cut. She currently has half of her top lashes and none on the bottom. As for her sight? "I can see okay now but it was a bit blurry at the start when it first opened," she said.
Causeway Hospital, where the glue incident took place, has since released a statement: "The [hospital] acknowledges that the care Ms. Galbraith received was not of the standard we would expect and would again apologize to her for the pain and discomfort experienced," a spokesperson told Belfast Live.
The hospital was definitely in the wrong, let's just get this straight. This holiday season, if you find yourself in Galbraith's position - you know, with an eyebrow lac and a medically-glued eyeball - promise us you won't replicate her method. Deal? Deal.
[h/t The Mirror]
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