I was just made aware today, through an email list I belong to, of a recent sparring incident resulting in dire consequences. It brings home a strong reminder that severe accidents with bladed weapons, either real, wooden, or blunted, can happen easily and often times they can be as close as the next wrong parry. Some of you may have already heard, or read of this incident. Even so, I think this is important enough to highlight once again for all of us that enjoy what we do and wish to continue doing it for a long time to come.
If the original author is a forum member here, please forgive me if I am misquoting you. I only wish to reprint part of it here to further what I perceive as your original intent, to help prevent this from happening to someone else.
"In the course of a free-form drill involving dagger wasters, I, who, like all present, should have been wearing a mask, got said waster thrust just below my right eye. It lacerated the eyeball and shattered the lens. I was rushed to a hospital, then transferred to one of the best eye clinics in the country (U of Illinois.) I had surgery the next morning to repair the primary damage. This surgery was, upon follow-up examination, deemed a success. The gash is stitched up, the lens fragments removed (this is my eye lens we're talking about not eyeglasses . Now I'm up and about, doing laundry, getting groceries, all the fun stuff...... ...........They're not committing to a prognosis. It could go several ways, depending on how I heal in the next week or two."
Many of us have had close calls over the years. Most of mine have not occurred during free play or intense sparring. Often times it is when going slow just working on techniques and drills. That is when I dropped my guard on safety awareness, when my perception was not one of any danger. Lets try to assume the worst, use common sense and be prepared for the unseen.
Dave
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