(4/6/99)
Opthalmologists and pediatricians want mandatory use of protective eyewear
for kids playing ALL school or community based sports.
Doctors say they're seeing too many injuries - a sobering 100-thousand
accidents per year.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates reports.
The level of concern has raised considerably because opthalmologists say
they're seeing injuries in young athletes playing sports which on the surface
appear harmless.
At age 12, Tory Nash was playing golf. A friend hit the ball. It sliced
and hit him square in the eye.
"The impact was hard enough that it made me fall to the ground," Tory says.
"And it cut my eye open on the upper and bottom part of it."
The impact crushed Tory's left eye like a grape - nothing was salvagable.
He says, "For a year, I didn't have very many friends because they didn't think
I could do anything. And 7th grade tryouts came and I got cut from the team
because basically I had lost all of my ability to shoot because I had lost my
depth of perception. So it changed my life completely."
Dr. Robert Hoffman and his colleagues want to see more routine eye exams
like this and fewer ones involving kids injured in sports - even games like
tennis, golf and soccer - which on the surface don't appear to threaten the
eye.
Opthalmologist, Dr. Robert Hoffman, of the Moran Eye Center, says, "They vary
from things that look awful but get better - to things that don't nearly look
as bad but have devastating effects on the child's vision, long term."
While some young athletes say they don't want to wear protective eyewear,
opthalmologists say the new equipment won't distort the vision no matter what
the game.
When he played with the Jazz, Antoine Carr was not a bit ashamed of his
protective eyeglasses. In fact, for some kids, they became the cool thing to
wear.
Tory's 21 now and has a prosthetic eye. He's getting married this week -
getting on with his own life. But his advice to young athletes: Don't take the
gamble.
"In a matter of seconds, you can lose something that is very valuable and it
can change your whole life. It can change everything you want to do," he says.
Opthalmologists say one third of all sports related injuries now involve
children.
