KOCHI: Even in his wildest imaginations, Sabu Abraham would never have thought that his life will take a turn for the worse. The Vaikom-native set out to meet his ailing friend on a sunny morning, only to end up losing his vision. The 45-year-old labourer suffered severe injury in his right eye as a stone crashed into his eye from a grass cutting machine operated by a migrant worker while walking on the road. As he fell on the road with bleeding eyes, locals rushed him to the hospital, only to realise that he had lost his vision permanently.
“The stone hit his eyes and he fell on the road. It happened around 9am, while he was on his way to meet his colleague. Local people took him to Vaikom taluk government hospital and informed us. Doctors referred him to the Kottayam Medical College. As his eyeball was completely damaged by the cobble, doctors told us that surgery was the only option,” said Jonichan N M, Sabu’s brother in law. On the doctors’ direction, the patient was taken to Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai. “We stayed there for three days and the doctors suggested us to get admitted for the surgery after puss formation in the eye stopped. Though they gave us some medicines, there was no relief from the pain. Then, we took him to the Little Flower Hospital Angamaly on Monday and by Tuesday evening, the operation was completed,” he said.
As it happened unintentionally, the family has decided not to take legal action. Incidentally, this isn’t a oneoff case. At Little Flower Hospital alone, three persons were admitted with similar cases in February itself. “It has become a routine in the summer season. It will be either a stone or a glass piece. Most of the time, the functional vision will be lost through these accidents. We have been noticing the trend in the last few years.
The first case of the past few months was that of a 10-yearold child who was sitting inside her room and a stone rammed into her eyes through the window from a nearby compound. In another case, a youth was riding his bike and a piece of stone came from the roadside cleaning work,” said Dr Remya Mareen Paulose, who treated Abraham. Many commuters face the same ordeal. “The glass of my car was damaged from the flying pieces from a grass cutter. During the cleaning work on roadsides and median, it is quite usual to see vehicles getting damaged due to their reckless work. Officials need to pull up their socks to regulate the use of the machine,” said J Ravikumar, a resident.
Dealers of grass chopping machines point towards the need to clean the area manually before using the machine. “If the area is not a well-maintained lawn, it has to be cleared before using the machine. The machines have grass collection baskets, but they won’t be able to block the things flying off the ground. However, advance petrol models have a suction option which will absorb the obstacles into its container. Basic level machines cost `9,000 and the price of high-end models go up to `35,000,” said Chintu Paul, a seller.