Florida woman loses eye after freak accident with retractable dog leash: Put my entire life on pause
A Florida medical assistant was left permanently blind in her right eye, needing surgery to remove it following a freak accident when her large dog lunged for a rabbit during their walk.Daniella Abreu, 24, and her 60-pound Husky, Blu, were on a nighttime stroll around their Stuart, Fla.neighborhood when the pooch spotted the wandering bunny on August 7, 2023.
Abreu used a rope leash to control Blu because of the dog’s size, but her usual leash became too frayed.She resorted to using an old retractable leash, which gave out when the dog detected the rabbit.
Abreu was struck in the face with the retractable leash’s handle and started gushing blood during the “traumatic” incident.“As he was running one way and I was pulling the opposite way, the friction of the leash just snapped back and repelled, hitting me right in my eye,” Abreu told PEOPLE.
“It happened so fast but I knew it was bad immediately.The force of the leash was so traumatic.”After the freak incident, Abreu says her “flight or fight mode kicked in” and she ran home screaming to her parents.“My mom got to me first and I just fell into her arms and got really pale.
My dad, oh my goodness, his face was so frightened and terrified, she recalled.“Even though it may not have been a life or death situation, at that moment, I obviously didn’t know.I knew it was a pretty severe situation though.
I was losing a lot of blood and eventually I just passed out,” Abreu added.“All the shock going through my body just overpowered the feeling.”Abreu was rushed to a trauma center in Fort Pierce, an hour away from her home due to her severe injuries.The accident split open her eyelid and she suffered a fracture under her eye and a detached retina.Abreu underwent X-rays and a doctor stitched her eyelid back together, but then her adrenaline wore off as she dealt with the accident’s excruciating aftermath.
“The pain was a 10 out of 10.I started hysterically crying because it was so ba...