- Daniella Abreu went blind after her canine’s retractable leash snapped and hit her within the eye
- The 24-year-old opens up about her painful accident and year-long restoration journey
- She now makes use of her TikTok to share her story and lift consciousness concerning the risks of retractable leashes
A Florida girl is issuing a warning after struggling a freak accident whereas strolling her canine — and dropping an eye fixed.
On August 7, 2023, Daniella Abreu was preparing for a nighttime stroll along with her canine, a 60-lb. husky named Blu. Due to Blu’s measurement, Abre most well-liked a rope leash for walks. That night time, although, it was too frayed so she grabbed an outdated retractable leash and left the home.
Whereas strolling round her neighborhood in Stuart, Florida, Blu noticed a rabbit and out of the blue lunged towards it. Abreu gripped the leash tightly and pulled again, attempting to maintain Blu below management.
“As he was operating a method and I used to be pulling the alternative means, the friction of the leash simply snapped again and repelled, hitting me proper in my eye,” the 24-year-old medical assistant tells PEOPLE. “It occurred so quick however I knew it was dangerous instantly. The drive of the leash was so traumatic.”
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The deal with of the retractable leash hit Abreu in her proper eye and her face began gushing blood.
“There was a lot blood. I believed I fully misplaced my eye, so my flight or combat mode kicked in and I used to be in a position to run house. I ran inside screaming. My mother obtained to me first and I simply fell into her arms and obtained actually pale,” she remembers. “My dad, oh my goodness, his face was so frightened and terrified.”
“Despite the fact that it could not have been a life or demise state of affairs, at that second I clearly did not know. I knew it was a fairly extreme state of affairs although. I used to be dropping quite a lot of blood and ultimately I simply handed out,” she continues. “All of the shock going by means of my physique simply overpowered the sensation.”
Abreu’s dad and mom referred to as an ambulance and she or he was taken an hour away to a level-one trauma heart in Fort Pierce because of the severity of her accidents. She suffered a fracture beneath her eye, a retina detachment, and her eyelid was break up open. Abreu says her face regarded “caved in” and there was quite a lot of trauma to the bones surrounding her eye.
Following X-rays, medical doctors stitched her eyelid again collectively. Then, the adrenaline wore off and the ache lastly settled in.
“The ache was a ten out of 10. I began hysterically crying as a result of it was so dangerous,” she says.
Abreu was additionally advised that she wanted emergency surgical procedure, which might require a switch to a different hospital in Miami. At that time, she was “making ready myself for the worst.”
After waking up from surgical procedure, Abreu obtained affirmation that she was completely blind in her proper eye and there was no solution to salvage her imaginative and prescient. She’d have a protracted street to restoration that required further surgical procedures for the remainder of her face to heal.
“Even to at the present time, I nonetheless do not consider it is true,” she admits. “I needed to put my total life on pause. I went from being a brilliant energetic woman — on a aggressive dance crew, figuring out on the facet, a full-time job — and I principally needed to take a 12 months off of life.”
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Abreu underwent 4 surgical procedures and medical doctors confirmed the harm to her proper eye was so extreme that it needed to be eliminated.
For the primary few months after the accident, Abreu says she was bedridden. She slept usually, not solely to heal however to grieve.
She struggled with unwanted effects from the accident together with extreme migraines, PTSD, nervousness and panic assaults. She ultimately began seeing a therapist.
“I needed to principally relearn all the things,” she explains. “When you’ve each eyes you’re used to opening them on the identical time. However my proper eye was stitched shut so I needed to step by step learn to solely open my left eye, which was straining and it precipitated me extra ache.”
After her final surgical procedure in June, Abreu was fitted for a prosthetic eye, which she obtained in August. It should must be changed each three to 5 years. Though it’s an adjustment, she’s glad to look barely extra like herself.
“I am doing alright however I nonetheless really feel very insecure about quite a lot of issues,” she shares. “I do not just like the motion of my prosthetic, the vary of movement could be very restricted. I nonetheless put on quite a lot of sun shades in every single place I’m going as a result of I am so embarrassed by the way it seems to be.”
Abreu additionally offers with dizziness and struggles along with her long-distance imaginative and prescient. Nonetheless, she’s slowly beginning to regain a few of her confidence as she adjusts to her new norm.
Abreu has since shared her story on TikTok, and she or he now makes use of her platform to attach with others with related accidents. She additionally emphasizes the significance of utilizing rope leashes reasonably than retractable ones — no matter a canine’s measurement.
“I’ve had lots of people attain out and it made me understand there’s an entire neighborhood of people that have one eye, not even as a result of simply freak accidents, however varied different causes,” she tells PEOPLE. “It additionally made me really feel good to speak about it and unfold consciousness.”
She provides, “It has been life-altering, and I’m simply attempting to learn to take care of it.”