18 March 2021
A 60-year-old patient suffered injuries to his eye and face after he lost control of the drone he was operating.
Writing in BMJ Case Reports, clinicians describe how the man presented to hospital with several lacerations to his eyelid and skin after being struck by his own four-propeller racing drone.
Further examination of the patient’s left eye revealed a partial scleral laceration, conjunctival laceration, traumatic iritis and displacement of an intraocular lens from a previous cataract operation. His vision was limited to hand movements in the injured eye.
The clinicians applied sutures to the wounds and the patient received oral antibiotics as well as antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drops.
Four months after the accident, the patient’s vision had improved to 6/30 in his left eye.
The case report authors highlighted: “In the last decade, drone use has significantly increased, and drone-related injuries have become an emerging cause of trauma. Our case raises awareness of the risks and highlights the need for improvement in regulation of drone use.”
The patient, who was an experienced racing drone pilot, admitted making an error in not sticking to the safety distances for take-off and landing procedures when the accident occurred.
“I do not want my accident to cause a demonisation of drones, but we must remember that we need to respect the safety rules. When you follow these rules, accidents are less likely to happen,” he said.
Comments (2)
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Anonymous18 March 2021
If that experienced guy couldn’t fly a drone safely, what chance the rest of us?
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Anonymous18 March 2021
Why do we in the UK (& other countries?) wait for something serious to happen before we bring in legislation. Why can’t we plan in advance ‘for a change’ & have measures which can prevent incidents like e.g the drones over Gatwick airport not so long ago. Drones are still in their infancy & we as a society could have controls now to stop them being a danger to anyone randomly. I would hate one come crashing through mine or anyone’s house/car, especially when they will inevitably come down in price & potentially become as commonplace as mobile phones, so anyone could own one. Here’s to hoping some form of register like a GOC type one is formulated for the public urgently in parliament, so anyone who wants a drone has to go through all sorts of checks/expense like we Optoms have to even set foot in an Opticians, so they can be licensed safely to fly these drones, as safety of the public must be paramount!
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