Tony Parker Leads the French even after his Eye Injury

"Tony Parker stared into the darkness while confined to his hotel room following a freak eye injury that nearly ended his career," reports My San Antonio. "As hours turned to days, the San Antonio star guard’s thoughts raced back to a night of partying in a New York club that turned fateful. Parker was a bystander trapped in the middle of a bottle-throwing melee, a shard of glass almost cost him everything. 'Life can change pretty fast,' he said. Parker was lucky, and he knows it. Despite not being able to practice until recently, he’s here at the Olympics, leading a French team that is at less than full strength and will open the tournament Sunday against a U.S. squad overloaded with superstars and expected to leave London carrying gold. The accident has altered him, made him cautious — but unafraid." Read more.

DOD Awards Grant to Study Eye Injuries

A Virginia Tech press release says  that Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University Center for Injury Biomechanics (www.cib.vt.edu) has been awarded a $2.8 million contract from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for phase 2 of an overall project focusing on brain and eye injuries in military personnel. Specifically, blast induced brain trauma will be investigated using experimental and computational models. Given improvements in helmet design and body armor and the resulting reductions in penetrating injuries, including penetrating head trauma, blast-related closed head injuries have become the signature injury of most military operations.

It's about Time

"A Kent rugby club has been fined £2,000 [about $3,000] and deducted 50 points following a deliberate attack which left an opposing player blind in one eye," according to a BBC post. It's about time that leagues start making players and teams responsible for injuries resulting from unsportsmanlike behavior.

Avoid Truckers after Snow/Ice Storms

"Peter Morano sleeps with one eye open..." starts the story from the Chicago Sun-Times. "'Unfortunately, I can’t see out of that eye,' Morano said with a laugh...Morano, 41, of Aurora, was hit by a huge chuck of ice that flew off a passing truck...His nose, skull and orbital bone around his eye were fractured in the Jan. 4 accident in Warrenville. The ice sliced his left eyelid in half and exposed the bones of his nose...Morano will have to see a glaucoma specialist for the rest of his life."

Floorball Athletes Risk Eye Injury

Floorball athletes risk serious eye injury, according to a study published in the most unlikely of places,  Dental Traumatology. "A total of 608 individuals (565 athletes and 43 coaches) belonging to the amateur and semi-professional leagues in the two countries were individually interviewed. Although 72.7% of all athletes had observed and 27.7% of field players had sustained an injury to the eye or its vicinity, only 25 athletes (4.9%) wore protective eyewear." Floorball is an indoor form of hockey.

Film Star Hurts Eye

"Film star Hugh Jackman injured his eye when he crashed into a lighting rig during a stunt gone awry on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' in Australia," reports UPI.