What Should I Do If I Get Poked In The Eye?

Dr. Reid answers the question: 'What If I Get Poked In The Eye?'

ByABC News
December 23, 2008, 5:52 PM

Aug. 24, 2009— -- Question: What should I do if I get poked in the eye?

Answer: If you get poked in the eye, with like a finger, there's a good chance that your eye's going to be okay. The first thing that you should do is look in the mirror and examine your eye. If there's blood where the eye's usually white, that's one thing to keep in mind. If your eye is painful as you move it around from side to side or up and down, that's another thing that may be a cause for concern. If you cover the good eye and you look out of the eye that's injured and your vision is blurry, that may be another thing to alert you to actually go to the emergency room.

When you get there, a doctor can actually look at your eye under like a microscope almost and tell whether there's just a scratch on the surface or if you've actually done deeper damage to your eye. In the meantime, if you feel the need to put any sort of eye patch over your eye, make sure that whatever you put is cupping the eye, almost like the bottom of a Styrofoam cup, rather than putting pressure directly on the eyeball just in case there is a more serious injury.