Something splashed in your eye. What to do in the first 15 minutes

If this is happening right now, stop reading and go to a tap. Flush the eye. Come back afterwards.

With chemical exposure to the eye, nothing you do later matters as much as what you do in the first minute. Not the trip to the hospital, not the medication, not the specialist. The flush.

The first 15 minutes, step by step

1. Get to clean running water immediately. A tap, a shower, a water dispenser, a bottle of drinking water. Do not spend time looking for saline or an eyewash station if plain clean water is closer.
2. Hold the eyelids open with your fingers. Your reflex is to squeeze the eye shut. That traps the chemical against the surface. Prise the lids apart and keep them apart.
3. Let the water run from the inner corner outward, so the runoff goes away from your nose and not into your other eye.
4. Keep going for at least 15 to 20 minutes. By the clock, not by feel. Fifteen minutes under a tap feels like an hour and almost everyone stops far too early.
5. Take out contact lenses if you wear them. Start flushing first if you can, then remove the lens and carry on flushing.
6. Roll your eye around while flushing so water reaches under the lids where splashes hide.
7. Then go to emergency care, still flushing on the way if someone can help you. Bring the container or take a photo of the label.

What never to do

• Do not rub. Rubbing grinds the chemical or particle into the surface of the eye.
• Do not try to neutralise it. No vinegar for bleach, no baking soda for acid. The chemical reaction generates heat and makes the injury worse.
• Do not put anything else in the eye. Not breast milk, not calamansi, not toothpaste, not eye drops of unknown type. Water.
• Do not stop early because it feels better. Comfort returning does not mean the chemical is gone.
• Do not wait to see how it goes overnight.

Not all splashes are equal

Alkalis are the dangerous ones. Bleach, lye, oven and drain cleaner, ammonia, and — the one that catches Filipino construction workers — wet cement and lime. Alkalis keep penetrating into the eye rather than stopping at the surface, which is why the flushing time matters so much. Treat any alkali splash as an emergency even if it stops stinging.

Acids tend to do their damage at the surface and stop. Car battery acid and strong descaling products still need the full flush and a hospital visit.

Everyday irritants — shampoo, alcohol, insect spray, sili juice, onion, perfume — usually cause a lot of stinging and not much injury. Flush anyway, for a few minutes, and get checked if pain, redness or blurring is still there an hour later.

Hot cooking oil is a burn, not a chemical exposure. Cool it with clean running water and go to emergency care.

Superglue sticks lids together. Do not force them apart. Cover the eye loosely and go to the hospital.

Metal fragments from grinding or drilling are their own category. A high-speed fragment can embed itself and you may not feel it after the first hour. Flush, do not rub, and get seen the same day.

Go to emergency care, not the store, if

• The splash was any alkali or strong acid
• Vision is blurred or has dropped
• There is real pain rather than stinging
• The white of the eye looks pale rather than red
• You cannot open the eye
• Something may still be stuck in there

A pale, blanched-looking white of the eye after an alkali burn is a bad sign and means go now.

After the emergency, get the eye checked properly

Once the urgent part is handled, the eye still deserves a proper look, and so does the vision it is left with. Surface injuries can change how light passes through the cornea, and people often find their comfort or their grade is not quite what it was.

Book a Vision7 eye test at your nearest Vision Express store once your doctor has cleared you. The seven-step exam includes a visual health exam of the eye surface and a full refraction, so you find out whether your vision has actually settled back where it was rather than assuming it has.

If you need a replacement pair fast because your glasses took the splash too, ask for Opulens Advanced 1.60 at the counter. It is in stock and ready in 20 minutes, with a hard, easy-clean finish that stands up to being wiped down often. For a same-day pair at the simplest specification, Basic 1.50 is also ready in 20 minutes.

If you work around chemicals, cement, or a grinder, ask the team about the toughest material available for the frame you want, and wear proper eye protection over your glasses rather than relying on the glasses alone.

Every pair comes with free lifetime ultrasonic cleaning, free lifetime custom fitting and adjustment, and a 1-year warranty.