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.

Oh OP ,glad you are all Ok! You sound just lovely and understanding….
(Quietly giving thanks that the nurses are in charge of the glue… from. Doctor)

oops. I’m an MIU nurse and paeds nurse and I’ve seen this happen a couple of times. It’s worrying for the patient as they are unable to open the eye. Tissue adhesive is commonly used in ophthalmic surgery it won’t do any damage we would advise immediate wash and regular application of Vaseline to soften the glue it will come off 24-48hrs.
to prevent this from happening I always try to lie patients down use some Vaseline to create a wall around the eye and then cover eye with gauze although not always easy with a distressed toddler!

Very poor form indeed

I stabbed the webbing in between my thumb and finger with a knife (I'm an idiot) so deep you could peer in and see the inner mechanisms of my hand (including a pulsating artery - thank god it missed it).

I went to A&E (minor injuries was closed as it was a weekend) where they decided to glue it shut. I was a bit "huh?" about this as it is in a place that moves a lot and it was very deep, but the junior doc I saw was adamant.

I went on holiday a day later to France where it got progressively more painful and hot, so I removed the dressing - he'd gone and bloody glued it open - there was a rock solid gaping hole in my hand! I visited the local medical centre who was not impressed with what they'd done, tried to remove as much of the glue as possible but he could no longer stitch it up - that ship had sailed. An infection had taken hold so I was given oral and topical antibiotics and some cream to soften the remaining glue.

I was not happy.

How unusual that this comes up just weeks after another thread where someone mentioned how as a nurse, in the past they had glued a patient's eye closed. No idea it was such a common thing 🤔

I'm sorry this happened to you, it must have been a pretty awful incident. But I'm so glad you're not going to complain. It was an honest mistake, either too much came out or your head wasn't at the right angle or something. Complaining will just cost the NHS more money. The nurse won't be sacked for this as there is no lasting damage but she may well leave because of a complaint and then you're a nurse down which makes staff more stressed and more likely for mistakes to happen.

I can assure you an incident form will have already been completed and a plan in place for nobody to use glue anywhere near an eye for the time being until they have a better protocol for avoiding this happening again.

I used to glue wounds all the time in a&e like yours. She should have laid you down, never sitting up. That way it runs towards the ear if you overdo it. Not good technique at all.

This is reason 6,569,834 why I could not be a nurse. OP, you'd have likely been going home with my hand attached to your face

You were very understanding, I think.

See I'm maxfax (dual qualified but dentist first) and actually some extractions/procedures just are difficult.

It's fairly common for patients to worry it's going wrong but it's not. Even something taking much longer than normal isn't "going wrong" it's just a more challenging procedure.

It doesn't mean I don't know how to handle it, or that it's in anyway a situation that's not fine. I've dealt with many complications and none would really make me panic or think something was going wrong unless the patient was genuinely dying. Realistically there's nothing in dentistry that's genuinely "oh fuck". And dentistry is really fiddly, it takes a lot of concentration and as soon as you become stressed your hands will shake and it becomes much harder. And lots of blood again is normal and not something that would make me in anyway think this is going wrong.

Yes communication is important but I think we also need to cut HCPs a bit of slack. Not every situation is going to be handled perfectly, especially when you are concentrating.

I think panicking in the OPs situation was the wrong thing to do, but also the nurse is human. She dealt with the problem that occurred and apologised.

This!

As a nurse who does this daily, all I can say is we are all human!

I probably wouldn’t put a complaint in either but I would be really pissed off about the loss of eyelashes. I know it’s small in the scheme of things but I would!

This happened to me! Was my arm rather than my face but it honestly made me cry laughing and made a pretty rubbish day a lot better. The poor nurse was mortified, bless him!

Poor nurse, not.
Can you loose your sight from the chemicals in the glue?
Did the hospital provide you with a leaflet detailing what symptoms to look out for with your vision?
Have you had an urgent referral made to opthamology (not an optician) with a follow up with the gp?
Worry about who did what when another time. Focus on how to reduce the risk of long term damage.
An optician can refer you into the opthamology department and so can a GP. Ask for a print out/copy of everything.

That’s a bit of overreaction @Nowthenhere The matter is sorted, apologies made, lessons hopefully learned. The OP is not complaining about her vision and I’m sure she would look out for help, if needed. Not everything needs a specialist check-up “just in case”.

@Nowthenhere there's no danger to my sight, no long term damage, no need for a referral. I'm not worried about who did what - the nurse glued my eye shut 🤷‍♀️ She didn't mean to, she made a mistake, they sorted it and she apologised.

I've had surgeons injure internal organs and consultants misdiagnose symptoms leading to near fatal conditions. They didn't apologise once.

I won't let my anxiety ruin the career of a caring and hardworking nurse. That wouldn't help anyone.

I don't think MN is the place for you @BeatieBourke with a measured attitude like that.

I wasn't feeling very measured when I came out if the hospital @Vitriolinsanity! Luckily I managed ro save my minor freak out for when I was on my own and then get some perspective.

Aww OP, that does sound scary and upsetting, but you do sound lovely and gave a very measured response! I suppose accidents happen in all professions, and in this case you weren't hurt, so it ended well. I hope your injury heals quickly!

And this nurse didn’t respond well. Co crying her fear and anxiety very vocally to her patient in distress

conveying

Tbf he probably assumed as a trained hcp that she was capable of using medical glue without getting it everywhere.

it’s a bit weird and patronising that folk are making the doctor responsible for the nurse’s carelessness.

I would complain so she can receive the additional training and supervision she needs.

Poor you but your post made me chuckle, poor nurse too 🫣
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Third comment... blame the victim.

Had something similar happen to me but at a beauticians- recommend revitalash - totally worth it to make eyelashes grow and repair. I can't believe the difference in a few weeks and I was at my wits end.