VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Can a person get an eye injury from an accident?  

Hello my name is Robert Mansour, and one of the more serious injuries that can happen in a car accident is damage to somebody's eye, vision issues, etc. and these can actually occur.  Sometimes they occur simply due to the trauma of the event, and sometimes also they occur when there's some kind of flying debris, glass, or some particles in the car - or something ends up in somebody's eye - or injuring the eye. 

Sometimes it can also happen from the trauma of the airbag against the face and against the eye.  After all, the eye is just another body part, and it can get injured in an accident although it is generally a more “rare” injury so one of the things that can be affected is just your daily life.  Your vision being hampered, it can affect your ability to drive, your ability to read - A person's vision is a very serious affair. 

One of the most important things that you can do if you think you may have an eye injury from an accident, especially if you start noticing blurred vision or you feel some kind of a scratching sensation in your eye, or it is difficult to focus, you need to go see an optometrist or an ophthalmologist right away.   An optometrist is generally your basic eye doctor, the kind of person who helps you with your glasses.  And then an ophthalmologist is more of a “specialist” with the eye, and you need to go there and have them check and make sure that your eye is okay.  You don't want to overlook this issue. 

Also, what is very important is proper documentation.  If you've had a car accident and you think you injured your eye in some way, you need to mention that to the doctors!  When you go to the emergency room or anywhere else, you say “Listen…something’s wrong!”  Proper documentation is very important - you see, if the insurance adjuster and the insurance companies see that the eye injury appears later or a few weeks later all of a sudden the eye injury becomes an issue and it was never an issue before, they might doubt that the eye injury is from the car accident - especially if you're silent for several weeks much like any injury you've got to mention it at the very beginning. 

Also, if the accident caused the eye injury your records need to say that! The ophthalmologist or the optometrist needs to say that!  In their records, it needs to say "The accident most likely than not or more likely than not caused this injury to occur".  Sometimes the injury can also lead to the eyelid or to the eye itself, the cornea, the iris, the retina; a variety of parts of the eye can be injured in an accident.  It's very important to seek help right away.  And then of course you want to make sure your records are very clear. 

I had a case one time where my client got into a car accident, and all the glass in the car broke…and he felt something in his eye.  And it was bothering him, and his glasses broke during the accident, so he went to the optometrist, and the optometrist was examining his eye and he said, “You know what?  You have a glass fragment in your eye!” Sure enough, when the wind shield exploded during the accident, he got a little bit of glass in his eye, which caused a permanent scratch on his cornea. And his doctor (his ophthalmologist) had the opinion that “Well, you could do surgery to correct that.”  In all likelihood, it wasn't going to correct it 100 percent.  He was always going to have a deficit with his cornea.  He was always going to see something called a “star burst” effect that, basically, when you see things especially at night when lights are approaching you and they appear to kind of be in a very star exaggerated fashion.  It's very difficult for people with that kind of injury to drive at night, especially with all the lights coming at them.

He also had trouble viewing television. He had to sit very, very close to the TV in order to be able to see it versus before he was fine.  He had to change his glasses.  He had to wear contacts and glasses on top of them.  So eye injuries can be very, very serious injuries and you want to make sure you diagnose them early and catch them early.   Don't think the problem is going to resolve itself.  My name is Robert Mansour, if you want to learn more please visit my website at valencialawyer.com or call my office at 661-414-7100.  Thank you very much.

Although they are somewhat rare, people can certainly get an eye injury from a car accident. Sometimes, eye injuries can be very serious. The eye is a very delicate yet important organ, and damage can occur which can alter a person's life. 

Sometimes, an eye injury might affect someone's abilities to drive, or to even do their job. Injuries to the eye can sometimes be caused by trauma from the car accident, or perhaps the result of flying glass or debris resulting from the collision. Sometimes, an eye injury can occur during the airbag deployment which would strike someone with such force that it causes damage to the eye. In some cases, a traumatic brain injury can also result in a impairment of one's vision. 

If you've had an injury to your eye due to a car accident, it is important that your treatment involve ophthalmologist, optometrist, or other eye care professionals. The injury can be to the eye itself or perhaps to the eyelid, the retina, the cornea, the iris, or other areas of the human eye. 

It is important to document the injury early to make sure the insurance company understands the accident caused the injury, and that it did not occur later on. The absence of documentation may cause some insurance adjusters to doubt the claim.  Or they might believe you have an eye injury but they may not believe it was caused by the accident.

The doctors need to be very clear in their notes and in the reports that the accident caused the eye injury. Testing can also indicate whether or not the injury can be partially or fully repaired.  

I had a case once where flying glass from the windshield fell into the client's eye and caused a permanent scratch to the client's cornea.  He did not know there was glass in his eye until he went to his optometrist to repair his broken glasses.  She noted the glass lodged in his eye.  As a result, the clients vision was impaired for the foreseeable future. Proper documentation is critical in cases like this. You need to get a doctor to write a report explaining in no uncertain terms that he or she believes the injuries resulted from the car accident, and whether or not the injury is permanent to any extent. If it is permanent, the doctor needs to explain how the injury might affect the person's life going forward. What exact deficits are expected?  

If you've been seriously injured in a car accident, call attorney Robert Mansour for a free consultation regarding your personal injury case. Call (661) 414-7100.