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Meet Frank and Louise Wilmot Frank, 75, is a retired engineer who enjoys gardening, fishing, and shouting at the television. Louise, 68, is a retired middle school teacher who likes to travel, read, and ignore Frank’s shouting at the television. They share their New England home with a happy little wheaten terrier named Bailey. |
A sunny Saturday morning at the Wilmot home found Frank reclining on a chaise on the back patio, “reading the papers” with his eyes closed. Louise caught a glimpse of him through the kitchen window and made a mental note to remind him to wear sunblock. Bailey, their wheaten terrier, whined by her side.
“Let’s give him another 10 minutes, then he’ll take you to the dog park, I promise.”
That prompted her to reach for the small box of flea and tick repellant she’d purchased. With all the new dog friends Bailey had made at the park, she didn’t want any tiny associates hitching a ride back to the house.
Frank’s reprieve over, she roused him from his nap. “Hey, before you two go play, I want you to put on sunblock and put this flea and tick stuff on Bailey.”
“No rest for the weary. Come here, dog, the boss says we’ve both got goop to apply.” He collared Bailey and took the small tube from Louise. Without his reading glasses handy, he saw no point in trying to make out the instructions on the label. He unscrewed the cap and squeezed the liquid onto the back of the dog’s neck. Bailey responded by jerking free from Frank’s grasp and shaking, sending droplets into the air. One caught Frank in his left eye, causing him to yelp in distress.
“What did you do?” Louise asked with alarm.
“I didn’t do anything, the dog shook this stuff in my eye, and it stings like a son of a gun!”
As Bailey raced off to roll in the grass, Frank instinctively reached for his eye, which was reddening and beginning to water, all while muttering colorful epithets about dogs, fleas and wives.
“Well don’t touch it, you’ve probably got stuff on your hands too!” Louise looked on the box for emergency instructions, which said to rinse the eye with cool, clean water. The poison control number was also listed on the box, so she ran inside. Setting a pitcher under the tap to fill, she pulled up the Northern New England Poison Center in her phone contacts. Taking the pitcher and phone, she went back out to Frank and followed the instructions given by the poison center specialist. She had Frank recline all the way back on the chaise and tilted his head slightly to the left. She began pouring water onto his face, careful to have it spill across his left eye and run off the side of his face. Frank sputtered and grumbled but the cool water did reduce the burning sensation.
Louise refilled the pitcher and continued the rinse. After 15 minutes of flushing, she blotted his face with a clean towel. “How does it feel now?”
Frank opened his eyes wide, then squinted and tried to focus. “Well, it’s not stinging, but things are a bit blurry. How does it look?”
“Pretty red still. The person from poison control said if it’s not feeling better in about an hour we ought to get you in to a doctor. Maybe you’ll need to wear an eye patch!”
“Arrgghh. Just the pirate look I’ve been wanting.”
“Ok, Captain Gray Beard, take my arm and we’ll go inside and pillage some lunch.”
The Northern New England Poison Center is available 24/7 if you get a possible poison or irritant in your eyes, or if you get a pesticide in your mouth or on skin. Call 1-800-222-1222, chat online at nnepc.org or text POISON to 85511 to reach our poison specialists.
