He felt no blow. No accident, no trauma. Just floaters drifting in front of his right eye and flashes of light that would not go away.
That is how a roughly 20-year-old man arrived for a consultation in Edinburgh, with no history of eye disease or previous injuries. What he confessed to the ophthalmologists at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion explained everything: for three months, every week, he had applied a percussive massage gun directly to his closed eyelids, using a bullet-shaped attachment, in an attempt to relieve visual fatigue. The result was devastating. Doctors found multiple retinal tears in both eyes, extensive bruising, and a retinal dialysis in the right eye, a serious tear that normally only appears after a strong blow.
He was treated with laser in time, and six months later, his condition remains stable. Dr. Niamh O’Connell and her team published the case in BMJ Case Reports because the device’s instructions never warned against this use. If you have one of these guns at home, you now know where it should never touch you.