Eye Floaters: An Overlooked Consequences of Car Accidents

There’s an eye condition that people can develop after a car accident that many people may overlook: floaters.

Floaters appear in your vision like small blurs, sometimes with tiny dots or threads in them that will occasionally flash like a tiny, bright light. They move with your eye, so as your eye moves, they seem to lag along in your sight — just slightly behind your actual eye movement. If you rest your eyes, they’ll come to rest also.

Floaters are essentially clumps of the vitreous gel that normally fills your eye that has broken loose. The gel is supposed to stay connected to your eye’s wall — but it can suddenly be pulled loose for a variety of reasons.

Sudden trauma, like the abrupt collision of another car into your car, is one of those reasons. However, many people may overlook the damage done to their eye because they don’t notice it right away or think that they’re just literally “seeing spots” after the collision.

In many cases, the floaters will eventually settle toward the bottom of your eye and remain out of sight. In some cases, however, they can adversely affect your vision and may require invasive eye surgery to repair.

What should you know in order to protect your right to compensation after a car accident that causes a separation of the vitreous gel in your eye and creates floaters?

• If you see spots, squiggles, threadlike images, flashes or a blur in your vision anytime shortly after a car accident, see your eye doctor immediately and make certain that he or she knows you were in a car accident.
• Make follow-up appointments to discuss the impact that the floaters are having on your vision if they continue to appear in your line of sight. This helps document both the connection to the accident and the scope of your trauma.
• If the floaters don’t disappear from sight within a few months, ask to be referred to a retina specialist — that’s the doctor who can evaluate the need for surgery to reduce the floaters.

Don’t let something like this go overlooked when you’ve been in a car accident or dismiss it as a figment of your imagination. An attorney can provide more advice on how to protect your right to fair compensation for your injuries after a motor vehicle accident.

Source: www.emedicinehealth.com, “Eye Floaters: Benign Causes” accessed Sep. 20, 2017