Emergency Eye Care

Our expert team offers 24/7 access to emergency eye care.

No one plans for an eye emergency or injury. But when it happens, you need prompt and skillful treatment.

The experts in emergency eye care

The Henry Ford Department of Ophthalmology offers 24-hour access to emergency eye care, including weekends and holidays, to individuals who have sustained trauma to the eye or who are experiencing an eye emergency. Our team offers the medical and surgical expertise to address any eye emergency, including:

• Retinal detachment: A retinal detachment occurs when the retina begins to peel away from its supporting tissues, including the blood vessels that supply it with oxygen. Without emergency eye care, it may cause permanent vision loss.
• Corneal abrasions: This common eye injury results from a scratch on the cornea, the clear outer layer of the eye. It can cause pain, discomfort, blurring and vision loss.
• Orbital bone fractures: The structure of the eye socket, or orbit, is designed to protect the eye. However, with enough force – such as from falls, sports injuries or auto accidents – the bones that make up the eye socket can fracture, leading to vision loss, double vision and pain.
• Eye lid lacerations: Depending on the depth and complexity of the laceration, specialized surgery may be required to treat the cut while avoiding eye deformity and injury to the cornea.
• Foreign objects in the eye: When an object gets embedded in your eye, it can cause nerve damage, vision loss and even the loss of the eye.
• Traumatic iritis: This condition, which is a type of uveitis, results from an inflammation of the iris, the colored part of the eye that controls the amount of light entering the eye. This is typically caused by a blunt trauma, such as getting poked in the eye.
• Chemicals in the eye: Immediately flushing the affected eye with cool tap water may help to relieve the stinging sensation, but emergency eye care is still necessary, given that chemicals left on the eye can cause irreversible vision loss.

Eye emergency symptoms

The following symptoms that occur suddenly may indicate the need for emergency eye care:

• Vision loss in one eye
• Hazy or blurred vision
• Loss of peripheral vision
• Eye bleeding
• Red, painful or swollen eyes
• Flashes of light, black spots or floaters

At Henry Ford, patients come first.

The Henry Ford Department of Ophthalmology is committed to providing our patients with compassionate, personalized care. We feature the most advanced treatments in eye care and are dedicated to vision research – always staying at the forefront of innovation. A leader in Michigan, as well as one of the largest ophthalmology practices in the United States, we treat more than 55,000 patients per year at 12 locations throughout southeast Michigan. In addition, our team works closely with Henry Ford Medical Group physicians in other departments, providing multidisciplinary, coordinated care for those patients who need it.