Woman super glues eye shut by accident, thinking it's eye drops

Tue, June 06, 2023 at 2:10:07 PM EDT

A woman shared a teary video to TikTok after she accidentally superglued her eye shut, mistaking the glue for eye drops.

Jennifer Eversole chronicled her trip to the hospital following the mishap and explained that her eye drops bottle sits "directly next" to a bottle of nail superglue and the bottles are about the same size. She said she was distracted while talking to her daughter and accidentally grabbed the wrong bottle.

"Now my eye's glued shut," she said through tears. "I had to be brought here by a f****** ambulance and I can't really open [my right] eye because then it makes this eye move and it's all scratchy."

This is one for the books for sure #fyp #foryou #eyesgluedshut

Eversole explained in another video that she immediately felt "intense burning" that was so "hot" she shut her eye quickly and the nail glue immediately sealed that eye shut. She also added that the bottles were next to each other on her dresser because that is her "catchall" location for everything in her room like toys, lotion and cups.

Ironically, she said she remembered using the nail glue to apply her daughter's press-on nails and thinking, "I should probably put that away so that nobody mistakes those as eye drops."

Replying to @JmyJo

At the hospital, Eversole's left eye looked crusted over with dry glue and she still couldn't open it while filming the TikTok. She also asked the phone operator who called the ambulance for her if they’d ever gotten a call like this before.

"They said ‘no,'" she laughed. "Thanks for the f****** vote of confidence guys, I really appreciate it."

One commenter snarked that Eversole should’ve just taken an Uber, but EMTs confirmed to her that calling an ambulance was the right move since eye injuries need to be handled right away.

Despite what the operator said, getting superglue stuck on body parts is so common that the Super Glue Corporation has an FAQ section dedicated to it on its website. A study from 2012 that examined public cases of people getting superglue in their eyes did not find any instance where permanent damage was caused. The worst that happens is caused by the eye sealing shut and parts of glue still being in the eye irritating the patient and causing them to scratch.

According to a follow-up video, Eversole was given numbing eye drops which made her eye feel better. Soon after, someone cut the rest of the superglue off and she was able to fully open her eye — but only because she still had numbing drops in.

"It's still really, really blurry," she explained.

She was able to go home with a bandage over her eye to prevent her from further scratching it, especially as it started to sting more when the numbing drops wore off.

"I hope by keeping it closed I’ll at least be able to open my eye tomorrow," Eversole said. "The doctor said he's seen [this] but only once before and it was a lady got both her eyes glued shut."

Eversole also compared the eye drop bottle and superglue bottle — the latter she threw out after the incident. She said she was extra frustrated with herself because her specific glue bottle had a red lid, while the eye drop bottle didn't, and she should’ve noticed it.

Replying to @•Bailey• #greenscreen he was not amused lmao. They are the same size in person but i tossed the glue out. #fyp #foryou #eyesgluedshut

Nail glue has been packaged in a similar way to eye drops since the 1980s, and research papers and doctors have warned against the similarities in packaging for decades. In 2018, when a 64-year-old man was treated for using nail glue instead of eye drops, there were 36 previously recorded cases of similar situations.

Because of how common the injury is, it's recommended to rinse eyes with lukewarm, soapless water for at least 15 minutes after putting in super glue. You shouldn't try to force the eye apart if it's stuck together, as that can cause serious tearing.

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