Partially or completely losing your eyesight can lead to a drastically affected lifestyle.  In all likelihood you will have to give up work for at least a short amount of time and your day to day living is going to suffer.  The injustice of having your sight robbed by the carelessness of somebody else leads to hundreds of personal injury claims a year for those who suffer from such an unfortunate circumstance.  Whilst it’s not something people think about in their day to day lives, we can exercise an awareness to lessen the chances of a disaster.

Causes

There are a number of ways in which we can have our eyesight damaged and the least common type is a blow to the eye.  Your natural defence mechanism as a human is to close your eyes and to throw your arms up to protect your face when you’re expecting a blow or collision and this is normally enough to ward off the danger.

Far more common is a foreign body causing the damage.  This can include chemicals and harmful liquids which is more of a risk than people think.  The lack of proper protection in labs and dangerous environments is a leading cause of this problem, but even seemingly innocent liquids like household cleaning products and beauty items can cause permanent impairment.

Foreign bodies also come in the form of debris, grit, sand and dirt.  Those working on construction sites and with grinding materials should always be wearing solid eye protection, as shrapnel and flying objects can easily become lodged in the eye.  The scratching of the cornea is the danger here, as your eyeball becomes unprotected and open to infection.

One of the more infrequent but just as dangerous causes of sight impairment can involve no contact with the eye whatsoever.  Head injuries can manifest themselves as problems elsewhere in the body if nerves and brain cells/stems suffer harm.  The severing or damage of nerves linked to the eyes can permanently destroy somebody’s sight, whilst their eyes are perfectly healthy.

Personal Injury Claims

Along with paralysis and brain damage, damaged eyesight is one of the big pay outs in the personal injury business.     The impact that the loss of eyesight can have on your lifestyle is significant, from interrupting your social confidence to completely inhibiting your ability to work and earn money for yourself.  Personal injury lawyers and the courts are sympathetic toward this and as a result, the average pay out of eyesight related claims can be much higher than less severe injuries.