WTAF?? They GLUED MY EYE SHUT!

[BeatieBourke]

Just recovering from the sheer madness of this.

I had to reattend a minor injuries clinic this morning because the butterfly stitches holding together a deep cut to my forehead had failed and the cut had reopened.

The nurse decided it needed glueing. She put a gauze over my eye (the cut is above my left eye) and we had a chuckle about how terrible it would be if she accidentally glued my eye closed.

When she'd done, she removed the gauze and I couldn't open my eye! The glue had run down into the corner of my eye and then along the lash line, sticking my eyelids together. GLUED SHUT!!!

I had to lay there for over an hour while they soaked my eye with saline and prised apart my eyelids. Then then tried to pull all the hardened glue out of my eyelashes with a pair of tweezers. In the end I had to do this myself with my fingers while they watched. I now have very few eyelashes on my left eye.

I felt pretty awful for the nurse. She was absolutely horrified at what had happened. She was obviously panicking. I found myself reassuring her it would all be fine while she stared at my face saying "Oh god! What have I done!" repeatedly.

We got it all off and my eye is now fine. I'm not going to make a complaint. It was an awful accident. But I'm quite scared of hospitals after a nightmare a few years ago left me with PTSD. I had to go for an x ray last week and the Dr was obviously harassed and stressed. He wouldn't listen to what I was trying to tell him and I ended up having a massive panicking attack. And now this.

AIBU to feel like stepping foot in a hospital is a game of roulette with a good chance of you coming out worse off than when you went in?

I'm still completely dumbfounded.

but this isn't a mistake.

I'm not a nurse but even I would think glue near the eye needs to be dealt with so it doesn't drip in or on the eye?

That must have been so alarming.
”Eyes are so precious “
(Words of a nurse at an eye hospital)

This poor nurse will never make that mistake again, I bet..
lying down might have been safer?
Glad your eye is OK.

This is exactly why you don't use glue near the eye. It's not an unknown complication.

Yes some sort of it's not going as planned but we will sort it attitude. Rather than a BLOODY HELL WHAT HAVE I DONE YOULL BE BLIND FOR LIFE

Yes fair comment.

I hope she has learnt from the experience and isn’t just sitting at home beating herself up endlessly.

Was she young OP?

Oh dear. I hope your eye isn't too uncomfortable!

I suppose it highlights that we're all human and mistakes happen (doctors and nurses aren't Gods like some people seem to think, they're people too and fallible just like the test of us). Hopefully she'll learn from it!

When I was pregnant I went to a midwife appointment wearing a long white maxi skirt... I left with said skirt covered in a lovely large streak of blood after a couple of attempts to take blood didn't go so well. My midwife was mortified and kept apologising but these things happen (particularly with my veins 🙄) and the skirt was fine after a soak and a wash!

But what good would them panicking have done?

Things quite frequently are not fine in healthcare but that doesn't mean it's not a situation the HCP hasnt dealt with before and doesnt know how to manage. That attitude is what helps them make the right decisions under pressure, you need to be able to think clearly and calmly if something is going wrong, the attitude is also about keeping them and the team calm

Panicking and saying what the hell have I don't doesn't really help anything

I think I'd be shitting myself. But then I'm not a trained nurse.

Exact same thing happened to my mum. Nurse was not wanting to use glue and the Dr basically told her to not be stupid and get on with it. Glue ran into the eye and glued her eye shut. Dr suddenly very on the ball in order to sort out his own mistake. It's all fine now. She was secretly pleased as she didn't have any wrinkles in that eye for a bit.

Aww, you poor thing
I do love you for not complaining though!

This is what I mean when I say it's not a mistake.

Humans make mistakes.

there's a frightening level of arrogance and incompetence going on in a lot of professions at the mo, and that's why this happened to poor OP.

The nurse at our local doctors told me years ago that she accidentally glued a glove to a patients forehead....!!
Hope you are feeling less uncomfortable now OP.

It's not arrogance and incompetence. That's a bit harsh.

I would say its foolishness, and perhaps a lack of foresight. It shouldn't happen but to call it arrogance is a bit off.

The very definition of a mistake is: an action, decision, or judgment that produces an unwanted or unintentional result:.

The nurse didn't mean to glue her eye closed, therefore it was a mistake.

Nurses are human and they're not infallible. They can't always control how they react or behave in certain situations. It's not the end of the world and doesn't make them unprofessional or stupid.

Dr telling nurse not to be stupid and get on with it - sounds like arrogance to me.

anyway, glad OP is okay.

You've worded this so well 😂

I hope you and the nurse have a better time of it from here on in!

Yes, that happened to my son when he was about 5 and had to have a cut to his forehead closed. She was a doctor and very quickly cleaned it off before it set fast. It must be hateful stuff to use, and I can't understand why they don't ask patients to lie on their backs to protect the eyes, as others have mentioned.

No panic doesn’t help either.

Some human acknowledgement that there’s been a digression from the plan is good though. Preferably short of “OMG….”

Fwiw I lost a lot of eyelashes when some big bad false ones came off. They grew back!

But presumably they were dealing with a deteriorating situation, and needed to keep calm. It's a bit off to say you are annoyed with a HCP in this situation for acting like all fine. This attitude is quite frequently for the HCP, and again are focused on dealing with whatever is happening.

And perhaps it was a common complication, they knew how to deal with.

God, how awful for you both! Glad you're okay!

@MetellaInHortoEst she wasn't especially young, no. Hard to tell with masks on but I'd guess somewhere between late forties and early sixties. She was very lovely, and otherwise did a great job.

No it was a very unusual dental fuck-up, and it went on and on and on. Eventually he called some extra help. I was in there two hours all told. Should have been 20 minutes. Maybe being unable to speak and not being properly verbally updated added to my feeling “well at least let’s be honest about what’s clearly going on here”.

Afterwards, they warned me it could recur in future procedures but nobody was expecting it that day.

IDK, it was just a throwaway point that a bit of humanity from HCPs is more comfortable than too much or too little.

That’s true of so many minor dramas though isn’t it? Communicate but don’t flap.

Well I think you’re being very reasonable and understanding.

I think you are brave and generous OP