Optician Saves lives ! It’s more common than you would think!.

When a group of opticians gather together for our continuing professional development and training events  you can imaging our conversations. Always comparing the latest most exciting patient case.  No doubt we get our biggest kick from saving lives.  If you just look up optician saves lives on the web, you will just see how common it is. And that is just the reported incidents!

What we don’t see is how many lives have been saved when the quality of your sight is critical.  Driving at dusk and on dark wet nights can be lethal. Every meter, every nanosecond can be the difference between life and death. I remember one incident when I was a passenger in a car and a new roundabout had been installed on the approach to Dublin. It was about 2 am as we returned from Waterford. We approached a new roundabout  where there was lots of road works in progress. We were travelling within the regulated speed limits.

I began to wonder when the driver would steer around this new roundabout ….. too late….. We ploughed through the builders debris and came to a halt in gutter in the middle of the roundabout.  The boat on our roof rack came down over the car and we were locked in. But we were ok – and thankfully rescued by some other passing motorists who all helped and ultimately lifted the car out of the roundabout.  The car was a write off.

Guess what ! The driver had an undiagnosed mild prescription requirement which was fixed just a week later. It could have been much worse.It was a long journey that wet night to and from Wexford and that was the slowest part of our journey.

So if you are been driven by some one this evening, you know that the car has had its service and MOT test, but have the eyes of the driver had theirs ? Something to think about.