Shocking scans show a brake handle lodged in teen’s eye socket after horror crash

DOCTORS had to pull a motorcycle brake handle from a teenager’s eye after it got stuck during a horror road accident.

Miraculously, the boy, 19, escaped with no major injuries or lasting sight problems, docs said.

Sharing gory details and pictures of the freak accident in a journal, medics in Malaysia revealed how the lever missed his eyeball by just millimetres.

Firefighters were said to have cut the brake handle from the bike at the scene of the crash so that paramedics could get to him.

Upon arrival at the Universiti Malaya Eye Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur, the man’s eye was red and swollen.

The bike handle was awkwardly protruding from his right eye socket, slightly to the left of his eyeball.

After an examination, doctors discovered his retina, the layer of tissue at the back of the eye that helps us see, was damaged and cloudy. 

CT scans revealed the handle had pierced the lower eye socket and damaged part of the bone around his nose.

The 17cm handle had luckily missed his pupil and nerves, which meant he narrowly escaped long-term eye damage.

An ECG, a test that records the electric signals your heartbeat makes, showed he was experiencing an abnormally slow heart rhythm of between just 45 and 48 beats per minute (bpm).

A normal adult heart rate is between 60 and 100 bpm while resting, according to the British Heart Foundation.

Doctors diagnosed him with oculocardiac reflex (OCR), which is when pressure on the eye muscles triggers a drop in heart rate.

The teen was rushed to surgery, where the handle was removed from his eye along with the damaged tissue.

The broken bone around his nose was then rebuilt with two screws. 

After surgery, his pulse rate immediately returned to a normal range of 72–80 beats per minute.

At a six-month follow-up appointment, doctors found the teen still had 20/20 vision, and his retina had healed.

Writing up the case report in the American Journal of Ophthalmology Case Reports, doctors said his right eye appeared sunken by around 5mm. 

However, the man refused any additional treatment to fix it.

They did not share any further details about the accident.

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Isabel Shaw

April 9, 2024 4:01 pm