In an extraordinary case, a 17-year-old boy’s perforated eyeball was treated at a Mumbai hospital after he had run into a thorny bush.

Dr Arjun Gokani, a consultant ophthalmologist in Bombay Hospital, told FIT, “He was brought to us at 10:30 in the night on 31 October. I immediately attended to him and noted that he had an open eyeball, which is a very dangerous situation as he could suffer infections in his eye which would blind him permanently. He also had near-total blindness in his injured eye on presentation. We concluded that he required urgent surgery to suture up the eyeball so the wound closes and seal the underlying retina to prevent retinal damage later on.”

Since a COVID-19 test would not have been possible at such short notice, the doctor and his team of junior doctors took special permission from a BMC doctor and operated the patient at 2 AM on Sunday, wearing double PPE suits to prevent the possible transmission of the virus in case he had it.

The doctor also informed that the boy is on antibiotic treatment to prevent any late-onset infections. Since his eye is sealed and the medications are being taken properly, it is highly unlikely that he will have any problems later.