07/05/2021
Well back when a 1972 Corvette found a way to nearly blind me, this story finds it's way here today. Living in Yucaipa, Calif. my father and I had found this very nice ranch home with property. It would be at that home I would have lost my precious eyesight had my dad not been home. He was a doctor and was well known by many other physicians in and around Riverside area.
So it was about mid morning when my girlfriend phoned the house looking for some help with her car and my dad stuck his head out our kitchen window to let me know. I had just finished detailing my bright red Corvette and was removing it's t-tops thinking how nice it would be on the way to my girls place. At the time there seemed to be no sense of urgency, so I took a shower, got dressed and proceeded to my Vette, key into ignition and click click, nothing just dead. I had left the running lamps on right! No big thing we had a battery box in the garage, so off I went to fetch it along with what I knew few tools required to get to my battery, you see, that model had it's battery behind the driver's seat in a compartment just below where you could stow the removable rear window. I usually remove it when I went topless anyway so I did just that but for some reason it was not going all the way in. What happened next went so fast, I still had in my hand the couple wrenches required to gain access to battery and felt I'd better get going now, she is waiting on me! With my other hand I lift up the lid and dropped the wrenches in my other hand right across the battery terminals- it was like a bomb went off and because of my awkward position could not move fast enough to avoid the acid now dripping from my face, my mouth and worse my eyelids.
Thank God my dad was there at the time and was just locking the front door when all this happened, he heard it saw me and like any father any doctor took action to help and it was bad he knew it. Remaining calm our garden hose was the closest source for water and before I knew it he had me running the water over my now very irritated burning face, I rinsed my mouth and told me get the acid out of your eyes, let's go now, he said to me, get in my car and off we all were to the closest emergency room some 20 minutes from our driveway. He had his stethoscope flung about his neck and like some racecar driver sped me to the E.R.
Well I don't want to bore you with all the details encountered at the hospital, but I can tell you this, the thought that I would never be able to see again really sunk in, that was the short term diagnosis that at best my 20/20 would be 20/40 and possibly blind in my right eye. To this day I have to credit my dad and his quick thinking of his action to get me to a facility where he and a colleague took great care in what without that immediate treatment, some long days with eyes covered, upon which no one knew until we removed the bandages... I could see and just as well in few more weeks, like it had never happened.
Yes, I always go for eye protection no matter the project, my eyes, your eyes of are to valuable to life not to protect them.
