George Calombaris reveals how squash accident nearly left him blind in right eye
MasterChef judge George Calombaris has opened on his frightening battle to save the sight in his right eye following a horror accident.
Fiona Byrne
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Masterchef judge George Calombaris has told of the battle to save the sight in his right eye following a squash court accident.
Calombaris has undergone three surgeries at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, with another schedule next month to repair his damaged retina.
The retina suffered multiple tears after he was accidentally walloped in the eye by a squash ball during a social game on March 30.
Calombaris said he immediately realised he had done serious damage.
“All I thought was, ‘Oh s---, I am going to lose my eyesight’,” he said.
“It is something that has completely knocked me for six and made me realise I am not teflon.
“Every time I think I am on the road to recovery I hit another stumbling block. I would never have thought that a little round squash ball could give me so much grief for so many weeks now.”
Calombaris was taken to the Eye and Ear Hospital following the accident.
Doctors discovered he had torn the front of his eyeball and had bleeding in the back of the eye.
“Once the bleeding stopped they discovered I had torn my retina in several spots, a result of the impact,” he said.
“Five days later I had the first operation. Then a week later I went back in for a check-up and they found another tear. I was told by my doctor they were operating that night to save my sight.”
A check up a fortnight ago revealed further complications and last Saturday he had further surgery.
“They removed the lens from my damaged eye,” Calombaris said.
“I am currently lensless. They removed all the vitreous jelly from the eyeball and performed microsurgery on the tears and basically filled my eye with oil.
“I will live without a lens for the next six weeks and have this oil in my eyeball which is basically holding everything together.
“A final operation will stick the lens back in, drain the oil and then hopefully I’ll live happily ever after.”
Calombaris has missed just one day of MasterChef filming, but says he is in genuine discomfort.
“Right now, out of 10 the pain is about a 4. Back then (after the accident) it was 11 out of 10,” he said.
“I hate being sick and I don’t like letting people down. What you will see on this series of MasterChef is me wearing sunnies in certain episodes and weird-coloured glasses in others, and I do apologise for that.”
He added: “I have incredible respect for my eye surgeons. What these guys are doing day in, day out is rescuing people’s eyesight.”
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