Abu Dhabi: A 35-year-old expatriate is once again able to see after the removal of a foreign body that was lodged in his left eye for about two years.
Safiqur Rahman Haider, a Bangladeshi construction worker, is relieved that what he thought was his rapidly failing eyesight finally turned out to be an impairment caused by a small bit of metal that was stuck in his eye for almost two years!
“As the sole breadwinner of my family — which includes my mother and four sisters — I was really concerned when my eye began to water. I couldn’t turn towards the light and I wondered why was it happening,” he told Gulf News.
Worsening vision
When Haider visited Burjeel Hospital Abu Dhabi, the doctors discovered that he had already lost 30 to 40 per cent of his vision in the eye.
“Patient history revealed that Haider had had an injury about two years ago and that a penetrating object had been removed from the eye. We decided to follow up with a CT scan, given the orange-brown discolouration in his eye, which we suspected was due to the rusting from the foreign body,” said Dr K Madhav Rao, consultant ophthalmologist at Burjeel Hospital.
A CT scan and an electroretinogram were performed, and a millimetre-long metallic substance was found. This was then removed during an hour-long surgery, after which Haider’s vision improved.
Risk of vision loss
Dr Rao said the foreign object had created a cataract in Haider’s left eye, as well as a traumatic glaucoma. Had it not been removed, it would have caused irretrievable loss of vision in the eye, with the right eye also mimicking those symptoms.
“I have been working in Abu Dhabi for the past seven years and hadn’t thought an injury that happened two years ago would cause all these problems. I was fixing a light bulb when some objects penetrated my eye. All this while, I thought they had all been removed. I am happy and relieved now that the root cause [of the discomfort] has finally been identified and resolved,” Haider said.
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Full patient history
Dr Rao advised that people who suffer injuries should give physicians the full picture.
“Penetrating injuries can leave behind bits of objects and it is essential for the physician to know the full incident in order to ensure that the treatment offered is effective and comprehensive,” he said.
