Battery Acid Eating Your Eyes: Pants Patient Part 2 

One clarification: Sulfurous acid is a bleaching compound. It can be found in some household bleach products, but it is not the chemical compound known as "bleach," which is primarily sodium hypochlorite. Chemistry was a long time ago everybody! My apologies!

Knock Knock, Hi, I'm the professional truck mechanic that's seen this happens. There's basically 3 main ways this happens: 1. The battery overcharged due to a malfunction causing it to overheat and vent liquid instead of gas. All lead acid batteries have a vent as the chemical process of charging releases hydrogen and oxygen gas. The battery can fail catastrophically from overcharging as well, especially if the vent is plugged, causing it to literally explode and catch on fire. I've also seen them melt from being overcharged, as the water-acid mix will literally boil from excessive electrical current. 2. Someone opened the top of the battery to try to add water or acid to it, and they spilled it on themselves. The only batteries you should do this to are deep cycle batteries like what is used in golf carts, you have to add distilled water to those occasionally. If your battery requires having water added to it regularly, please don't handle the battery with the caps off, just put a funnel in it and pour the water in with it sitting still. If your battery doesn't have removable caps, or it's a maintenance free battery like 99% of vehicle batteries, please don't try to open it, they're sealed for a reason. 3. The battery was physically damaged in some way, causing acid to leak out of the sealed case. This damage doesn't have to come from an impact, there's many things that can damage the battery case, including overcharging or simply heat cycling. Alot of batteries start to swell with age, and I've seen alot crack where they start to swell. I only handle swollen and damaged batteries while wearing gloves. I've actually taken a swollen battery out of a truck, set it on the concrete floor, went to lunch, and found that the leaking acid that I didn't even see had etched a perfect outline of the battery into the concrete.

"If you've never taken chemistry then you'll live a longer life, because the stress of studying chemistry takes its toll on an individual." As someone studying for an organic chemistry midterm tomorrow, can confirm.

I'm a chemistry teacher and I approve this message. Bleach is a base. Sodium hypochlorite

So if I see my Ophthalmologist running naked except for some shoes through my Hospital I can rest assured that they are not having a mental breakdown but it is in fact an Eye crisis. Thanks Doc!

My key takeaway from this is that a red, angry eye is an eye that's still alive, and it's fighting to stay alive

The battery acid situation happened in my garage. I came home to the apartment to towels on the floor and no one home. One of the family had battery acid in their eyes while working on their jeep. The others got him upstairs to the bathroom and flushed his eyes and then, off to the hospital. I was no longer upset about the towels. His eyes turned out fine. Thank you for talking about this.

I make soap and teach soap making. Of course I employ all ppe for using lye. All my students will now watch this video as part of lesson number one. Thanks for all the unforgettable imagery.

I had a TA for a chemistry lab who had base burns on his face-with the outline of his safety goggles. He looked as if he had a mild sunburn. He stated that a base burn was worse than an acid burn.

A car battery (and most batteries in general) get hot if they are short circuited (such as a wrench across the terminals). The combination of heat and electrolyte breaking down into gas / boiling can cause pressure to build up in the battery leading it to rupture.

My mom had glacial acetic and sulfuric acid explode in her face in the 50s. She had a successful autologous stem cell transplant with cornea transplant in around 2010.

There's really nothing like listening to an expert talking about the field he's passionate about. These are so interesting! Repeating my request for detached retina content. Two things that are horrifying - the acid turning the surface of your eye into soap (saponify) and the idea of the bases melting your eyes. Edit to ask: what are your feelings about people putting eyeliner on their waterlines?

You just inspired me to buy some eye wash solution for home use! My approach to anxiety is to be prepared for anything. 😅

Shout out to all the poison control centers out there that are incredibly helpful for practitioners at places a bit more remote and rapid guidance in conjunction with normal resources.

Please address: retina detachment/tear; dry eyes- proper eye drops.❤

Hey Dr. Glauccy. Acid (which by definition means an excess of H+ ions) produces H2 during overcharging. H2 is hydrogen gas, like what filled up the Hindenburg. Batteries also can be a source of a spark if there is a bad connection (or when removing charging cables). Igniting the hydrogen gas causes an explosion. The explosion sends shrapnel as well as intact acid from the battery into the patients eyes. This sends a signaling cascade to Dr Glauccys phone and a secondary messenger (Jonathan) to put your pants on.

Could you do an episode on Laser injuries, I am studying physics and I am always terrified of carrying out laboratories which include lasers even though we have very good safety rules

Airbag eye irritation: Sodium Azide is a solid that will rapidly decompose to nitrogen gas. This is often further catalyzed by potassium nitrate. The result of decomposition of these compounds is sodium and potassium oxide, which turns into sodium and potassium hydroxide (base) on contact with water (or the tear layer on your eyes). Short story - don't play with airbags, especially after they've deployed!

Having worked in a Level 1 Trauma Center with Regional Burn Center, the most common patient I saw with battery acid burn, was from an assault. Apparently, throwing battery acid into someone's face was a relatively common form of punishment/assault in our local gangs.

My Dad was a Dentist up in Boone, NC. So, it was not that uncommonly that I would be home and he would get a call from somebody and no matter what time it was and he would pull on his pants and go to the hospital or his office and do his best to make them comfortable until the morning. Because this was quite some time ago, if it was something like a really bad wreck, the emergency room would call him to do some type of repair work because the closest oral surgeon would have been located way down in N. Wilksboro so probably about at least 45 minutes to an hour away from us. So he was probably the closest professional person who could do something in the middle of the night to help the suffering patient!

I had a white dot appear on my left eye's cornea a few months ago. My eyes were super red and blurry, plus my left eye hurt like crazy. The opthomologist said it was a pinguecula and gave me steroid drops to relieve the irritation. About a month later (I took the drops for two weeks) the dot was gone. The point of this story is: I NEVER WANT SOMETHING TO BE WRONG WITH MY EYES AGAIN. It was awful. Thank you, Eye Doc, for your care of the peepers. Us sighted people take them for granted. 👁👃👁

I knew someone who got a drop of HF in his eye. They saved his eye and his vision.

So, years ago checking electrolyte level in a non sealed car battery. Using my right hand I grasped the cap which covered 3 of the 6 cell levels. As I flipped it up, pulling from the rear, a drop, one single drop, flew up, I watched its flight toward my left eye. Oh, yes, no safety glasses. Fortunately in my left hand I was holding a large glass of water. I dropped to my knees and started flushing immediately. Not two seconds passed before I was flushing my eye. I used that water and ran to get more water. Kept flushing it until I thought I got it treated sufficiently. Outcome was I suffered no lasting injury but my eye felt irritated for several days. Obviously I don’t do anything around my car without wearing safety glasses now. Lucky I had that water with me and it was only one drop.

I'm loving this eyeballs and pants patient series! I always protected my ears well, but now I'm more inspired to wear eye protection more.

Even though I´m only a microbiologist, i do realy enjoy this "rounds"! Always ready to learn some more and still having fun with it :D Hope, this will be a long series :D

After you're done with your pants/no pants patients, I'd like to suggest you talk about lesser known eye conditions. I have a personal interest as my baby was born with bilateral congenital cataracts, a condition I have never heard of before. (Sry about my grammar, non-native English speaker.)

I feel like eye health and safety is often one of those "blah, blah, blah, whatever" thoughts to many people - until they need an Ophthalmologist. THEN, when an emergency happens, it's intense gratitude that an expert is there. Thank you for what you do!

DO THE VEINS IN YOUR EYES HAVE VALVES?? That's the really interesting question!

Hey, Doc Glauc', last year I had a corneal abrasion that became recurrent corneal erosion that took roughly a year to get under control. I'd never even heard the word "ophthalmology" before then, but I've come to appreciate your field much more than I ever could have otherwise. Love your shorts, the month of healthcare was depressingly good, and like the podcast.

Please so much more of this!!!

Such illuminating information about our prescious eyes!👀 I fussed at my brother years ago about using Visine!😱 He finally heard it from our optometrist and finally heeded the warning! ⚠️ I think it gained popularity back in the 70's when everyone was smoking pot.🤨 And now that it's legal in places, more people are damaging their eyes! But please keep educating people, they need to know the truth! Thanks for sharing another great video!👍

I would love to hear about retinopathy of prematurity. They aren't pants patients and it's fairly routine for the NICU. I know the broad strokes, but I'd love to know more.

Saw Jonathan for a millisecond! "Don't put things in your eye that don't belong in your eye." And there he was. ❤️

Doctor, I had to chuckle thinking of you moving around your home customarily pantless waiting for your no-pants patients. 😂😂 Comfy not wearing pants, isn't it

Whenever he said "Don't do that." in a very restrained manner -> you can tell he really wanted to say it like "DON'T DO THAT!!!"

The skits with all specialities are funny,but these segments are funny and more importantly, useful and educative. Thank you! A segment on glaucoma especially when it runs in the family would be great. Is having a thinner than normal optic nerve worrisome?

I love how happy he seems when he says "I get to talk about ophthalmology!!!"

During college, my analytical chemistry professor shared a story about when she got aqua regia (sulfuric acid and nitric acid mixture that can dissolve gold, platinum, etc) in her eye. She recovered, but the doctor said she was lucky it was not basic. Also I am now a chemical engineer. Some of the chemicals out there in industry are absolutely horrifying. Always wear your proper PPE. If you are doing something at home with relatively large amounts of acids or bases where the risk is more than droplets splashing, invest in a pair of closed goggles to prevent liquid in the eyes. As a note, I thought bleach was sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl. . . Hence Chlor Ox). pH of bleach is also basic. For a crash course chemistry lesson, the pH scale is a logarithmic scale for the concentration of [H+] (the acid). In chemistey that 'p' means negative log, base 10. The H+ is in equilibrium with the basic hydroxide OH-. Those two react to form water and in reverse to reform those ions. The more basic it is, the more hydroxide is present relative to H+. The same is true with acid, the more H+ is present, the less OH- is present. Typically pH is shown in a range of 1-14. Since it is a base 10 log scale, each step of 1 is 10 times more acidic/basic. Low numbers are acidic while high numbers are basic. There is a sister scale (pOH) measuring the concentration of OH-, the base. The relationship is pH + pOH = 14. The reason that is 14 is that equilibrium I mentioned earlier. The equilibrium constant is 10^-14. -log(10^-14) = 14. Pure water is a 7 meaning H+ and OH- exist in equal measure. I glossed over quite a few details to keep things concise, so I encourage you to continue research if you are interested.

For acid you want proper splash goggles. If you work on cars and you notice your battery is swollen I'd advise use of PPE in its removal and transfer it to a lidded polypropylene container just like Jessie was supposed to get in breaking bad. Take it to a recycler for your core charge as soon as possible so you don't have to worry about it.

5:05 I thought bleach was hypochlorous acid

I love this series. Please continue and spread the love of eyes!!!

As an EM provider, I'd like to see more of these.

A friend of a friend had ocular melanoma and the way my friend described their chemotherapy delivery sounded absolutely terrifying

I got some HCl in my eye in my college biochemistry lab and immediately went to the eye wash stain and flushed for like 3 minutes. I was gonna stop and the TA shoved my head back in. Thanks for saving my eyes 🥹

This video is excellent. When in college I worked at a fast food restaurant. When cleaning up a co-worker when cleaning a grease filter was sprayed in the face with caustic chemical solution. I took him to the ER and he was OK.

Back around 1990. I was living in a small town in Idaho when a rail tanker car containing sulphur dioxide developed a leak overnight. Guess what sulphur dioxide gas turns into when it contacts water. We were evacuated at 6am by the fire department and ran out to our cars with wet rags over our faces. You could feel the burn in the eyes and lungs. That was fun! Only one person died during the evacuation of an MI and the family settled with the railroad (Union Pacific) for an undisclosed sum. The railroad moved the car to a smaller community down the line, which didn't make them very happy either. By the evening we were able to return home as the heavier-than-air gas had dissipated.

I can add this learning session to my appraisal folder I’m sure, thank you!

My brother worked in a service station placing batteries in cars It can happen . They wore safety glasses and had safety courses luckily he never had it happen. I'd love ve from r you to explain shingles ....as I have one near my eye this week.yes I had the shingella vaccines didn't work ouch

These eyeball puns are getting cornea and cornea.

Thanks for mentioning melanoma of the eye. Ive had two patients over the past 5 years who've had cancer of the eye (their neuro conditions were separate, but i payed attn each time to the patient telling me about their treatment, because i have a friend who has the same condition, and i was amazed to meet these other two humans/patients).

I have been getting regular dilated eye exams since I was 8 (ish). Recently my optometrists office started to offer the option of photos instead of dilation. It's not covered by the insurance but I am MORE than willing to pay out of pocket for a few moments of discomfort vs most of a day of funky eyes.

Macular degeneration runs in my family- it's been interesting looking at my retina images over the years. I have a freckle on one of my retina as well. Glad my ophthalmologist doesn't mind explaining stuff.

As a chemistry person: a) have you ever seen piranha solution in the eye? b) what do organic solvents do to your eyes? Are they just irritants?

hypocalcemea has to be one of the most hardcore injuries I can think of. You go to work one day, slip and fall and then all of a sudden your bones are melting inside your body. The industrial revolution was a mistake

Bleach is usually sodium hypochlorite which can form hypochlorous acid when dissolved in water.

Love to see you talk about ophthalmology and eyes doc. Your way of talking about it draws attention. It's fascinating!

Well, to inform you on how a car battery might burst, in the event of your lead/acid battery having a ruptured cell, too strong of a acid concentration, overheating, etc the reaction that normally produces electricity between the lead and sulphuric acid will "runaway". Or essentially react at such a rate that the battery itself cannot contain it. This is primarily due to the production of gasses, mainly hydrogen in that runaway reaction. However, in time, the casing itself will rupture under the pressure spraying often hot sulphuric acid everywhere.

As someone who previously worked in pharma manufacturing, specifically IV fluids, this is the first time I learned of BSS being used for flushing chemical burn in the eyes 😮

Nothing is more important than eyeball knowledge.

"Hydrofluoric acid is the worst acid." Piranha solution and fluoroantimonic acid: are we jokes to you?

When I took my lab safety course to be allowed access to my university's academic labs, they told us that if we were using hydrofluoric acid, the first step was to call the closest hospital and ask them to prepare an antidote. Really filled us with fear of that chemical.

Don’t let anyone tell you eyeball injuries aren’t real injuries. My husband's aunt was born deaf. Then she went blind in one eye. After so many surgeries we couldn’t even count any more. It was a situation where these surgeries happened so often that we lost count ! She required band surgeries, bubble surgeries , buckle surgeries and this patient was so serious about her treatment that it was just bad luck that she went blind in that eye. Then she started to go blind in the other eye !. It was called Proliferative vitreous retinopathy. She had cancer that she was managing very well and had no plans of dying. But with being deaf and now blind, she decided not to continue with her cancer treatment.. so that's how important your job is. My husband used to say he was worried for her, but I I used to say “ one good eye” but I never thought she would lose the other eye. It was very traumatic. But she died quietly and happily in palliative care. She just had a great attitude. And her doctor (ophthalmologist ) was a a really wonderful man that my husband's aunt really loved. Maybe you need to do a video on how great opthamologists are. I met Dr G in person when I was in hospital and he was very humble . I was surprised that other doctors didn’t know he was an internet star. It really made the day for all the other doctors finding out that he was an internet star. Thank you so much for making my day. It was a terrifying disease I had (neurologist needed). Neurologists are known to be jerks. (One neurologist I had years ago SHOWED up for his first appointment of the day at 10 am.. but he booked his first appointment with patients at 8 am. I spoke to his secretary and she confirmed that this was his normal practice. He Booked appointments at 8 but show up for patients at 10. Maybe opthamologists are the nicest doctors of all. Your series should reflect that !. Dr G, you’re the greatest !.

Hi, as horrifying as some of the content was, I found it really entertaining. I do have a suggestion for the 'Eyeball Tip of the Week' segment. While it was as horrifyingly amusing as the rest, I'd love to hear explanations about why those actions are harmful. For instance, putting alcohol in the eye sounds absurd, but what are the actual consequences?

During high school (1970s), I cross-jumped my dad's Buick to my Falcon and blew up his battery. More harm done to his car than to me. (This was almost matched when I put cold hose water on his windshield.) Surprised I made it this far.

Could you do a segment on pediatric ophthalmology in the NICU? This was one of the most traumatizing parts of having a baby in the NICU, and our son had several turns for the worse after visits from the ophthalmologist because of the stress and desaturation events during the exam.

Would love to see advice for what to do about itchy eyes and maybe even a tutorial for how to remove an eyelash from your eye. Its not a problem for me because I have long eyelashes and can usually just close my eye and grab it with a loose grip so I'm not ripping out my other eyelashes or even just swipe down with 1 finger, simple as. My lady on the other hand they'll normally go under her eyelid and I feel like cotton swabs or toilet paper are not approved methods.

Another possibility is that they had a powersports battery that came with separate vials of acid that are used to charge the cells after purchase, they got some on their hand and then rubbed their eye. Kind of like eating hot peppers and then rubbing your eyes when they start watering, except worse. Sulfuric acid and distilled water

Bug spray is really bad for the eyes. In my teens my brother decided to 'prank' me and sprayed me with wasp spray right in the eyes right when I woke up. We probably should have gone to the ER, or st least done an eye flush. Nope, just sat on a camping trip, in pain. Thankfully I didn't have any eye injury.

Idea for your next video, Highlight the differences between, Ophthalmologist and optometrist, love your stuff, keep it coming

Now im imagining dr. Glaucomfleken bursting into the room, in his underwear, declaring "I am the opthalmologist" and then following up with "Oh good, you're in pain!" And I am dying

Another example of a "Don't do that!" activity: I present the Engineer Shot. First explained to me by a USMC Combat Engineer, you get a shot of tequila with the associated salt and lemon, but you first snort the salt, then immediately take the shot, and finally squirt the lemon directly into the eye. Not something I've ever done, but I have seen 2 guys do it together.

Ive seen a few ocular melanomas! Very interesting. Interesting pet scans. Similar area-midwest, we see patients from all around the state, lots of farmers.

I got fired from a car detailing job because I took an undiluted Sodium Hydroxide (used diluted as a degreaser) injury on top of a burn injury VERY SERIOUSLY. That place didn’t have an MSDS/SDS sheet for the chemical or any neutralizer and the “first aid attendant” used GLYCERINE BASED BURN GEL AFTER WASHING WITH DISH SOAP. People do not understand that corrosive does not mean acidic, and chemicals that are basic are (more often than not) more dangerous/corrosive to the human body because they bind with lipids to create (what we know as) soap. If there is no fat there and it is mostly water based (LIKE AN EYE) it will keep corroding anything in front of it.

Surprisingly I did actually know about melanoma in the eye! But I only learned about that this year, because my optometrist exam noted this like, freckle I've always had in the whites of my eye....I hadn't really worn sunglasses before as I'm a glasses-wearing human, but now I'm kind of obsessively doing it lol Besides that, I learned so much this episode, thank you! I hadn't known that basic burns were much worse than acidic, that there is (used to be??) lye in airbags, how pH papers are used for the eyeball, the existence of a horrifying but helpful invention the Morgan lens, and that blood-red damaged eyes are better than white

can you do an episode about contact lens safety and infections such as AK?

Buy eye wash kits for your homes people! No matter how careful you are Accidents can happen outside of your control. Please keep a minimum of 1 kit per house, ideally keep 1 in each room an injury could occur, plus 1 more for each first aid kit. Always wear eye protection, and if you wear glasses, I suggest wearing contacts and goggles or getting perception goggles. Most basic eye glasses are not the right shape or area surface to keep you protected.

It was fun, I'm here for the ride. Thank you for your knowledge and time!

When my son was one years old he pulled himself from crawling to standing using my husband’s bedside table drawer handle. The draw opened and a bottle of “Da Bomb” hot sauce fell out and broke. Before I could get there, he had rubbed it in his eyes!!! It try to get it out, I grabbed him and put him in the shower, which activated the heat of the sauce (like tear gas is activated by moisture). That poor kids screams still haunt me. Milk is what they used to rinse his eyes in the ED, which saved his sight. He is now 23 and nothing wrong with his vision.

You know it's bad when the ophtalmologist or the dermatologist say they are coming immediatly. Also, wear PPE, no matter how little danger you think you will be exposed to.

At least in biotech labs, there's an alternate form of eye protector that's a disposable full-face plastic visor both for handling nasty solutions (acids, bases, fixatives) AND for preventing biohazard contact from projectile fluids.

Also had my eye irrigated, so thankful 😂

Dilution is the solution to pollution. I have had the odd drop or two of battery acid hit my eye on several occasions and with the tears that were flushing it out I had no ill effects.

Before my best friend was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, I never knew you could get melanoma in your eyes. They successfully removed the melanoma and she was fine for a few years. But then the cancer came back in her liver. Treatment was unsuccessful and she died about 9 months later .

Wouldn’t using vasoconstriction to reduce redness also reduce oxygen levels in the eye, and thus trigger blood vessels to grow more and become even more prominent? I honestly am just wondering.

Hey doc, I really appreciate your educational content! One thing I'd humbly suggest is that you might not want to take for granted the medical knowledge of your audience. At one point in this video you said "obviously you need blood supply to heal an organ." That wasn't obvious to me, at least not for an organ like the eye! I think of the eye as a ball of jelly, and I'm not really sure how blood is involved. Anyway, please keep making more of these videos!

I didnt get the notification for this one 😮😢 but I'm subbed to get all notifications, so gutted I had to just come upon it 😔

love it! There is a big gap in healthcare information on eyes but blindness is considered one of the most debilitating things. You hear lots of social media about healthcare but not a bunch of eye stuff. My father lost most of the vision in one eye because of a zoonotic parasite that ate the lens. I know a bunch of people who had to have cataracts removed and tuns of people with eye issues. you always see people make stuff about healthcare and health and just skip eyes, like seeing isn't the most life and brain changing thing ever. YOU PREVENT and cure blindness! More 👀 please!

Love these videos!

What about pudding? My friend Lenny recently got some in his eye...

Yeah I'll never forget our biology teacher warning us that getting the acid in our experiment would be terrible but getting the strong base/alkali would blind us irrevocably. It's painful enough getting soap in your eye!

I'm so glad you told us this. I think I'm going to wear goggles when I clean from now on 😬 YIKES!

Anything that short circuits a lead-acid battery can make it explode. A lot of battery explosions occur late on very cold (> -30C) nights, where someone's battery has gone flat and a good Samaritan is giving them a battery boost. Making the corrections incorrectly or touching the non-ground wire to the vehicles frame will do it. Best to wear safety google and a safety face shield, but almost nobody does. There can be other causes of lead-acid battery explosions, like hydrogen buildup, but boosting batteries and accidentally short circuiting is the commonplace cause. Rapid discharge and the rapidly emitted hydrogen gas can blow off the cell covers or even fracture the battery case. Modern cars often have the battery concealed to protect people, and instead present large electrodes in the engine compartment for when boosting or external charging is needed.

Good stuff, Doc Glauc! Thanks!

You are so awesome. Eye appreciate you. 🌻 Dallas, TX 💙

HF is solid nope anywhere. Never even thought about it getting in the eyes.

Ha! Ha! We chemists have come in to say that household bleach is a base and is sodium hypochlorite. Also, bases saponify, not acids. Air bags are inflated by igniting sodium azide. It instantly generates nitrogen gas. The other decomposition products may be irritating. The powdery stuff in them is talc or cornstarch.

I think it was NileRed that spoke a bunch about how important a proper eyewash station is A tap simply doesn't cut it I think he told a story about how he took off his safety goggles for _just a second_ and something explosed and covered his eyes in chemicals

Because batteries rely on the reaction between lead metal and H2SO4 to generate a potential, a by-product is the liberation of H2 gas. Because of this, there should be a vent to let the H2 offgas. If you forget to remove the plug and draw a large amount of current, enough H2 could form to make it go boom.

Was washing walls with bleach water taking off the old wallpaper and wallpaper paste and whatever was growing when I splashed this mixture into my eye. Lots of flushing with water. The eye was saved thanks to my wearing a hard contact lenses.

Intraocular melanoma actually happens in horses! Usually horses with lots of white in the face and of course grey/white horses... It's still not something you see often but I did actually see one about 2 years ago. It was never diagnosed further though so can't be 100% sure but it was interesting to say the least.