John's Accident

So what happens when teeth whitening gel consisting of 6% hydrogen peroxide explodes in your face? Well, read on.
Friday I was working hard to get my house cleaned so when John got home from work we could play when the phone rang. I thought it was the usual morning call from John to check in with me. He told me there was an accident at work and he was at Instacare.
Apparently John was working on a machine doing something he does every single day when it stopped working. He took off the hose and pointed it at the ground-a safety measure in case anything comes out. After a minute when nothing had come out he turned the hose up to look inside. He heard a pop and suddenly whitening gel shot into his eyes which were wide open at the time. Thankfully he turned the hose away when a plug shot out with enough force to kill him. The plug shot up 40 feet, hit the ceiling came down, hit a machine and bounced across the floor.
John's friend and co-worker was at his side in an instant and guided John over to the sink where he pulled handfuls of gel off his eyes. They flushed his eyes in the sink then took him to the eye rinse fountain where he held his eyes open for fifteen minutes. He said it felt like he had rocks in his eyes and was scared the gel was crystallizing. Apparently when your eyes are severely burned it feels just like sand in your eyes.
At Instacare they put cups over his eyes which held them open and ran fluid through for about twenty minutes. John then returned to work (his boss was driving) where he gave a report of what had happened. People were mad because this shouldn't have happened. John did absolutely nothing wrong and people are refusing to work on this machine until it something is done. After his quick report he came home so I could take him to an Opthamologist. Thankfully Worker's Comp covers everything because these will be some hefty bills. He examined his eyes and told John he had burned the top layer off both eyes. Apparently when you get base in your eyes it does more damage than an acid. Acid coagulates with your protein, whereas a base will continue to eat through your eye until it is completely rinsed out. John was lucky he had co-workers who reacted so quickly! The doctor told John the fastest way to heal his eyes would  be to medicate them and pressure pack his eyes for 24 hours. John chose the quickest way so I left the office with a blind man. John has been so terribly bored for the past 24 hours. He's listened to t.v., listened to music, sat in the backyard, talked to me...there's only so much a temporarily blind person can do. I had the suggestion of just doping him up so he'd sleep the entire time. I think now he wishes he had listened to me.
We are both so thankful he still has his eye sight. When the gel hit his eyes he thought he'd lose his vision, how scary would that be? I tell you what, accidents happen so quickly. I'm happy he's home with me and healthy...aside from the temporary blindness.