According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a young adolescent kid from Tasmania suffered a horrible mishap using a laser pointer that caused him to lose nearly 75% of his sight.

The family’s 14-year-old optometrist, Ben Armitage, said:

He came in to see me, and on Friday night, he had accidentally shined a laser pen for a very little length of time into his eyes.

When Ben took a picture of the boy’s eyes, he saw that his retinas had been scorched and that his eyes had been permanently damaged.

Ben had stated:

Unfortunately, because that’s where your fine centre vision is located, the extent of his eyesight loss has been considerably overstated.

The harm started as soon as the boy pointed the laser at his eyes, impairing his eyesight right when the laser light illuminated the back of his eyes. He didn’t experience any pain, but the damage had already been done.

His eyes had suffered damage to the macula, which in circumstances like this meant that blindness was likely to be permanent.

Ben, the optometrist, was optimistic that some of the kid’s eyesight would return once the swelling had gone down a bit, but the youngster needed to be ready to accept the possibility that he might only have 25 percent vision for the rest of his life.

Geoff Squibb, the Chief Executive of Optometry in Tasmania, has since advised parents about the risks associated with laser pointers, particularly in respect to youngsters who may not always fully grasp the seriousness of the situation or may try dumb things like shining a laser into their eyes.

He claims:

“After this particular case where the future of a young person has been seriously impacted, parents are better off trying to warn children of them,” said the expert.

What could seem like a harmless toy but is actually a “silent destroyer” of the retinal components of your vision might have absolutely devastating effects.