My wife was hit in the eye by a Champagne cork about 10 years ago. She said she saw stars and then a moment later a black curtain appeared to come down in that eye. That was the effect of the retina tearing away from the back inner surface of her eye. She was temporarily blind in that eye.

The local retina expert did a miraculous procedure that saved most of her vision in that eye. He assessed exactly where the tear was, injected a bubble of nitrogen gas into her eye (makes me squirm to think of it), then had her place her head on a custom molded foam pad for something like 24 hours. She was positioned so the bubble would float up and push the torn retina against the inner surface of the eye. He also applied a scleral (sp?) buckle which is some sort of belt around her entire eyeball to change the shape for some reason.

She regained most of her sight but complains to this day she doesn't see very well in that eye even with glasses or contacts. I don't know what her before and after stats are, but I would guess she permanently lost 10% or 20% performance in that eye. And she fears further deterioration as she gets older.

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Behind every great man is a great woman. Behind every great woman is a great behind.