You may have heard more than once that it is dangerous to look directly at the sun during an eclipse, as there is a risk that radiation will damage your eyesight, right? But do you know what exactly can happen to those who do not take the necessary precautions, ignore the warnings and observe these phenomena without protection at all? One American woman found out the hard way: suffering a permanent eye injury.

Can not look directly without protection! (abc News)

According to Angela Chen of The Verge during the "Great American Eclipse" that took place in August this year, the woman stared at the phenomenon for a mere 6 seconds before deciding to watch the show through special lenses, but This brief period was sufficient to cause damage. And the thing was very fast, because, according to Angela, 4 hours later, the woman's vision started to blur, and she started to see everything black.

Irreversible injury

The woman's identity has not been revealed, but the doctors who handled the case said she was in her early 20s. Apparently she looked directly into the eclipse as the moon covered about 70 percent of the sun and sought help from ophthalmologists three days after the event.

Images taken during eye examinations of women (The Verge / JAMA Ophthalmology)

Examinations revealed that the woman suffered damage to the retinas of both eyes - and the left was more affected, as, in addition to the injury, radiation damaged the photoreceptors, sensory cells responsible for capturing and transmitting to the brain visual stimuli reaching the eyes. eyes.

More specifically, the woman was diagnosed with a condition called solar retinopathy, an injury for which there is no treatment. Incidentally, according to Angela, there is a record of a man who suffered the same kind of damage after looking directly at an eclipse in 1962, and today he can only see with his right eye. If we consider this case as a reference, the woman's prognosis is not very good.