A child was brought to the Vivekenanda Mission Hospital with a history of paddy grain entering the left eye. The ophthalmologist could not find any grain inside the eye and the child was given an ordinary antibiotic drop. The symptoms became aggravated and the child was brought to the hospital again after four or five days. After double eversion of the upper lid, the grain was found with a shoot growing inside the eye. Fortunately there was no corneal ulcer and the eye could be saved. This led us to organise campaigns for the use of protective glasses while threshing paddy with electrically operated machines. With the use of electrically operated machines, the grains enter the eyes with greater force and cause much more injury to the cornea. The fine hairs of the paddy grain have a notorious tendency to push the grain up into the upper fornix and hide there. Double eversion is the technique to detect it.
Workers wearing protective glasses while using an electric thresher
Photo: A Kumar Sil
Irritable, discharging left eye. Grain was found under the upper eyelid
Photo: A Kumar Sil