SpudFiles

I had a bit of an accident last weekend, and I thought I would share it with SF so that they are more respectful torwards Cannons. I am not a fully dedicated user here at SF I tend to stay here for a week or so, then go off into other things again, and come back months later. I used to be obsested with SpudFiles, and Potato Cannons. Although Im not a fully active user here all the time, I still make cannons at home when im bored.

It happens that last friday me and some friends were bored, so we gathered up some sprinklers, sparkers, and some small AA bore sized barrels. We were using the sprinklers as a chamer, and using the PVC risers as barrels. They were working perfectly. But it was one of those thing you use once or twice then throw it in the corner.

On Saturday we went BMXing at a Skatepark all day. When we got home we were bored, and had nothing to do. We were hanging out at my house, and we got out the mini cannons we made the day before. We had a big conversation going, as I was loading, and firing this cannon with potatos. I wasn't paying to much attention to the shooting, as my brain was in the conversation. Somewhat in the middle of the conversation the cannon failed to fire. I had completely forgot the cannon was loaded with a potato, and charged with mapp gas. I went to check if my sparker was working, I looked down the barrel, and click.... POP! I fired the cannon staright into my right eye, and I kinda fell to the ground. I couldn't see anyhting out of that eye, it was pure white. I walked inside and my mom called my dad, who is ironically a fireman.

Looking at my eye in the mirror was completely red, and my eye was dailated to 4mm. The middle of my eye was blue. We rushed off to the ER, waited for an hour, they gave me a pain shot in the butt, and they said the eye speicalist is gone, and there not answering there phone. They reccomnded we went somewere else. My dad went off duty, and we went to UCLA eye center, which is supposed to be one of the best places for eyes anywere. We got there and they took me as a emergency patient. At this point A was vomitting, and in andout of sleep constantly from the pain shot.

They took a look at my eye with on of there machines, and told us I had received an instant tramatic cadarct, which is pretty rare they told us. I also had a possible torn retina, which can cause permnant blindless if I didn't go into surgery in the next few hours. But they sent us home, and told us to come back the next day.

When we did they took another look at my eye, and said that they could not see anything through my eye since the cadarct was so bad.(O and by the way a cadarct is basically the lens of your eye but shattered, so you cant see clearly through it). But after a ultrasound there they said that there is no tear in the retina.

Then we went to a specializd eye doctor to get a good surgen to give me cadarct surgery. So after extensize check-ups and surgery planning the doctors were having they found out that the capsule in my eye had gotton completely blown out, and they need to order a speical lens for the surgery.

So three days ago I had the surgery. What they do is cut an insition in my eye, and suck out the broken lens or "Cadarct" with a special vacum type device. Then they insert the new lens, and in my case since my capsule was blown out, which normally holds in the new lens, they had to Stich the lens in place.

When I got out of surgery, I was so happy, cause I could finally see thorugh it agian! Accept I cannot read with it is still blurry a little. My eye doctor told us that it will take several months to completly get all the vision I possibly can back. I cannot excert myself for 3 weeks, or swim, or get water in my injured eye. I may need one contact for that eye, but It is going to be Dialated at 4-6mm for ever.

I was exteremly lucky, any more damage could have cuase permanent blindness. All I had to of done is be more carefull with cannons, and It wouldn't have happend. I will never get 100% of my vision back, just becuase of this one, dumb, stupid accident that was compeltely all my fault, and If I would have remember the golden rule of firearms, never look down the barrel, I would have been ok.

Im done making Cannons. I have plenty other thingss to move onto. I want to thank everyone here at spudfiles for the help, and times we have had lol.

Sincerely,
Cannon Creator

Jesus. Thats horrible.
Luckily your eye is still usable.
Is it going to remain blue?

Wow, scary stuff! That would suck knowing that you might not be able to every see again... I'm happy everything seemed to take positive turns after the accident.

Now I was wondering - are your eyes different colors? Now I heard that the back of your eye is a brilliant blue color, might that have something to do with it?

Aww dude that sucks so bad. I feel real sorry for you man. That reminds you how dangerous this hobby can be, remember always treat your cannons as firearms guys.

Really, really sorry to hear about this, I hope you get back what vision you can as quickly as possible.

What's sad is that this accident was completely avoidable, and proof if any was necessary that one should never, EVER look down the barrel of any launcher, there is nothing you can gain from it and you're breaking one of the cardinal rules of spudgun safety - never point your launcher at anything you're not willing to destroy.

Wow... I don't know what to say... At least you have some vision out of it. Thank goodness for no torn retinas.

have fun on your other hobbies hope you get better but it shows that we have a dangerous hobby

Jeez, that is a spectacularly bad accident.

It's good to hear the doctors got it working again. One of the worst things I could imagine is going blind


I'm all for this being stickied.

Ah, that sucks man. Too bad you're quitting spudding though, it's a very safe hobby as long as you don't stand directly in front or behind the cannon. Although I guess I can kinda understand it, that must hurt.

Man, I hate to hear about your accident. Looks like you've learn a hard lesson the hard way. Thank goodness it is mostly repairable...and...this experience just added a couple of years maturity to your life...I can tell by the tone of your post!

I understand your desire to lay off the cannons at this point. After giving it some time to let the trauma fade, maybe consider picking it back up again...it's obviously something you loved doing. Perhaps a more serious approach next time. As you've no doubt heard before, sometimes getting back up on the horse is the best therapy.

Me, being new to this hobbie didn't know too much about this. But from now on, because of reading your post I am goin to be wearing safety goggles at all times when shootin my cannons.

I agree w/ Hotwired, things like these that show the dangers of Spuddin should be stickied.

Thanks for the reply's guys. And No, the blue in my eye in that picture is the cadaract ( The shattered, or broken lens ) which was before surgery. Now It is back to normal color, except it is still dialated noticably much more then the other one.

Jesus Christ man. You are very lucky that you will get vision out of that eye still. I hope that you make a speedy and complete recovery. I agree with starman, after the trauma fades, you should think about picking it back up again. Though its good that youll be around every once and again still.

Again, im sorry to hear about your accident, that is one thing I would hope would never happen to anyone.

not so good..

i bet that stinged a "little"

That sucks horribly. The internet has desensitized me to many things, but eye related trauma still makes me wince.

Considering that your eye will be permanently dilated at 4-6 MM does that mean that you will have to wear sunglasses with a darker lens on that eye in bright situations?