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A 19-year-old student nearly went blind after a pot of boiling chocolate exploded in her face.
Samantha D’Aprile, of Chicago, Illinois, had been baking cookies with her mother in December 2021 when the pot shattered as she was leaning over it, hurling scalding hot chocolate and shards of glass into her eyes.
She ran to the bathroom and splashed water on her face, but her eyes swelled rapidly and her eyelids drooped shut. They remained sealed for five days, with doctors saying the damage was so severe it was as if someone had given them a ‘razor blade’.
But Ms D’Aprile, who had perfect vision before the accident, has now made a ‘miraculous’ recovery and can see perfectly again after resting at home. It comes after a teenager in Georgia was blinded in one eye when she blew up her hair dye tube.
Mrs. D’Aprile, pictured above after the accident, has made a full recovery and is back to her normal vision. Doctors described it as a ‘miracle’ and said the moment she splashed water on her face may have saved her eyes.
Doctors released her after two days in the hospital so she could recover at home, but she needed to return every day for tests. On day five, Christmas day, she managed to open her eyes again.
Mrs. D’Aprile is shown above during her time in the hospital and afterwards when she was able to open her eyes again.
“When I found out my vision was almost gone, I told the doctors I didn’t want to live any longer,” Ms D’Aprile told DailyMail.com.
“I was in such a dark place and I was going crazy for the few days I couldn’t see. I couldn’t imagine the rest of my life like this.
She added: “Going from having perfect vision to being told the next day I could be blind for the rest of my life was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever been through and I couldn’t understand it.”
After the pot exploded in her face, Ms. D’Aprile said her eyes felt like they were “on fire” when they began to swell shut.
Her mother rushed her to hospital, but had to be transferred to another unit after the one they visited said it wasn’t burns.
She said: ‘I was in so much pain that my body started to shut down, they gave me morphine which helped with the pain and I was able to breathe again.
Samantha D’Aprile, 19, of Chicago, Illinois, was baking cookies with her mother in December 2021 when a bowl of scalding hot chocolate exploded in her face. Her mother rushed her to the hospital, but she couldn’t open her eyes for five days (pictured above at the hospital)
Mrs. D’Aprile, shown above with a friend, photographed before the accident. She ran to the bathroom to splash water on her face when the pot of chocolate exploded.
Ms D’Aprile pictured in hospital after her injury. She suffered burns to her face and eyes, which left her sightless for five days.
“When I got to the hospital they immediately took me to a room and did all kinds of treatments and tests.
“At this point, my eyes were swollen shut, I couldn’t open my mouth because it was also burned shut, and I was really high on all these meds.”
An examination revealed that the cornea, or the clear, dome-shaped area at the top of the eye, had been burned.
His eyelids were also burned.
Doctors kept her in the hospital for two nights to monitor her and administer treatment.
But Ms D’Aprile said the nights were “brutal” and left her “unable to sleep”.
She said: “I couldn’t sleep, and every time I slept, the nurses would wake me up and give me medicine and open my eyes to give me drops, which was very painful.”
He also received instructions from a blind specialist while in the hospital on how to walk, go to the bathroom and do other daily tasks without being able to see.
Doctors treat eye burns with cycloplegic drops, which temporarily paralyze the ring-shaped muscle that changes the shape of the eye’s lens, allowing it to focus. These muscles may spasm after burns.
Patients may also be given an antibiotic eye ointment to prevent infection.
Pain relievers may also be given.
Doctors released Ms. D’Aprile after two days so she could recover at home, though she still had to return every day for tests.
The student said: ‘Every day was spent with me sitting on the bed with my eyes closed.
“I was freaking out over the fact that I saw darkness and there was nothing I could do to fix it.
‘On the third day of not being able to see, the doctor opened my eyes to see if I still had my vision.
‘The doctor opened them up and I could barely see but slipped ‘Band-Aids’ for my eyes.
“He described my eyes as if someone took a razor and cut them both off.”
Doctors feared that Ms. D’Aprile could lose her vision or have reduced vision if cloudy spots were left on her cornea, which can be caused by injury.
She said: ‘I had an 80 per cent chance of being color blind because my cornea was badly damaged.
“I prayed to God several times a day to keep my vision and that was the only hope I had.”
To help her eyes heal, cold water was run over them. This can also help ease the pain.
Mrs. D’Aprile is shown above with her mother. After the accident, she ran to the bathroom to splash water on her face.
Five days after the accident, it was Christmas Day and the student decided to try to open her eyes again.
He found that he could open them slightly, although this was extremely painful.
Approximately two weeks after the accident, Mrs. D’Aprile discovered that her vision had returned to normal and that she could do everything she used to.
This included reading, driving, looking at electronic devices, and finding that opening his eyes hurt less.
However, more than a year after the accident, Ms. D’Aprile says her vision is fully back to normal.
But she says it has still left scars on her mental health.
“I have panic attacks from the accident, but I’ve learned how to cope and what certain triggers are,” he said.
“I used to be super rebellious and never thought too much, but now I don’t usually do anything outside of my comfort zone and I’m much more grounded.
“It’s all a work in progress and all it takes is time to heal so I know it will get better with the mental factors but the accident is still relevant and I just need to be easier on myself and realize that this is all normal and a part of the healing process.
‘My plans for the future are to finish school and get a good job in marketing, but mainly to live each day to the fullest and create as many memories with my friends and family.’