“I will always be in the risk zone for cataracts and for the rest of my life I have to go for regular check-ups.”
Danish doubles badminton player Mai Surrow sustained an eye injury while competing in the Danish League on Tuesday. It happened when Anders Skaarup Rasmussen hit her eye with a shuttlecock from a distance of about two meters causing a hole in the retina of her right eye.
Reported by TV 2 Sport, the incident occurred in the first game. The mixed doubles match was paused for four minutes while the team’s coaches checked Surrow’s eye.
Even though Surrow immediately went down after the shuttle hit her eye, she chose to continue to play after the coaches’ assessment. The pair continued to win the first game but eventually lost the match in three games.
Surrow said, “I made the others look at me, and it looked like I was really just hit under the eye. So I thought that if it was just pain, then it was fine enough, and I chose to continue playing. I could see that my vision was a bit blurred, but I thought it was just the blow that was going to subside.”
When the match reached the third game, the real issue for Surrow started.
Surrow recounted, “When the third game started, my eyesight became really blurred and I could not really look. I could only sense the light and the space. So there I knew well, I went directly in the emergency room after the match.”
At risk of going blind.
The incident resulted in a hole in Surrow’s right retina and she had to undergo an emergency operation.
Surrow: “I will always be in the risk zone for cataracts – and the sorts. And then for the rest of my life, I have to go for regular check-ups at the ophthalmologist and be aware of symptoms.
“But I was told at the hospital that I will not necessarily experience any of these after-effects and that I was really lucky if you think about the pressure the eye received.”
Surrow has regained her full vision since the operation and has been advised to wear glasses to protect her eye. So the next time we see her on the court, she would be wearing special glasses.