Ophthalmologist Tjeerd de Faber of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital warns against this. “It is extremely dangerous,” said the ophthalmologist. “The gel often contains more than 70 percent alcohol and burns the stem cells in the eye, as it were.”
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This is especially dangerous for children, says De Faber. The dispensers often hang at the eye level of young children. Monique from Volendam noticed how quickly an accident can happen.
‘Directly in his eye’
“I was with a 2.5 year old son to the swimming pool. There was a dispenser with a lever on it. My son is a curious toddler and hung on that lever”, Monique tells RTL Nieuws.
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“He looked at the device. It was exactly at his eye level, so he got it directly into his eye.”
Rinsed for a long time
Monique immediately went in search of water to rinse her son’s eyes. “That was still difficult, because the showers in the pool were closed due to corona. In the end we put him on the counter in the restaurant and rinsed his eyes for a long time.”
That is exactly what the ophthalmologist advises: “Rinse, rinse, rinse, as soon as possible. You cannot wait a few minutes with that. And then go to the emergency room or the GP post. Because if the eye cannot be properly examined, a child immediately under anesthesia, so that the eye can be properly cleaned. “
It seems that the flushing helped Monique’s son. “At the emergency room, his eye was especially very red. Later at our own doctor it looked a lot better. So he probably did not sustain any permanent damage. But you can’t be sure. He is 2, so he can’t yet. indicate whether he sees worse. “
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Hopefully it stays with the shock for Monique and her son. “It’s a really bad moment. And it can happen to any child. We were just there and of course we paid close attention to him, but it goes very quickly. As soon as you push that lever, that stuff comes out.”
That is why Monique wants to warn other parents, but also the companies that make or install dispensers. “In places where a lot of children come, you have to take this into account. For example by using a dispenser with a tray. Then as a child you cannot get under it with your eyes.”
Scar on your cornea
Ophthalmologist Tjeerd de Faber also calls on people to pay close attention to disinfection columns. The consequences can be severe: “You can get a scar on your cornea, which makes it much harder to see through it.”
Children can then get a lazy eye because they start to see through their good eye. De Faber: “In extreme cases they can even become blind in one eye. And then we have not yet talked about the direct complaints: it hurts a lot when you get disinfectant gel in your eye.”
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