Paintball is now one of the most popular sports in terms of recreation in the developed world, and people play it dressed up properly and using protection. Nevertheless, accidents can occur and, of those, the most dangerous involve hits to the eye. The high velocity at which the ball travels can cause blindness in an instant, and in various ways, at that. Surgeons report that only about a third of those sustaining such a serious injury following an incident ever get their eyesight back. The numbers speak for themselves, and they say that safety measures need to be ramped up, in order for the game to be safer for all those involved.

"Eye injuries secondary to high-velocity paintballs can cause tremendous damage to vital ocular structures often requiring extensive surgical intervention. Unfortunately, visual loss is often permanent," Bascom Palmer Eye Institute scientist Dr. Kyle J. Alliman, from the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, cautions. During 1998 and 2006 Alliman and his team analyzed approximately 36 cases of patients who had had accidents involving paintballs.

In only 36 percent of the cases, namely 13 patients, normal eye vision could be restored. For all others, the accident meant losing their sight in one or both eyes, or even have the damaged eye removed completely. What's even more concerning is the fact that the average age in the study group was of only 21 years old, which means that those kids are now forced to live the remainder of their lives using an eye patch.

Some 22 percent of the group had enucleation, which is the clinical term for eye removal. Surgeons say that there were no other solutions to repair the eye, and that this course of action was the best, under the given circumstances. About 19 percent of patients suffered from a detached retina, meaning that they lost their vision completely, whereas 28 percent experienced eyeball rupture.

The doctors argue that almost no patient practiced the sport in a controlled setting, and that only one of 36 participants had protective goggles. The experts stress the importance of people wearing eye protection during paintball sessions, because stray balls can be influenced by the smallest of factors, such as a gush of wind, and even a shot to the legs, taken from a distance, can have disastrous consequences.