I’m watching an episode of CSI where the killer is using ammonia to blind his victims. My question: if blinded in this manner, is there a cure?
Depends on what’s damaged and how much.
If the ammonia erodes a hole in the globe and lets the whole eye leak away, not much cure.
If it scars the eyelid and fuses it shut, the repairing that could help.
But the most likely mechanism of damage would be scarring and opacification of the cornea, in which case a corneal transplant would help.
In the 70’s in the UK there was a law and order program on telly called “Police Five” Every week it would feature real crimes they wanted solved. It seemed criminals were forever blinding security guards with ammonia back then. The MO seemed either smash the windows of a security van and spray ammonia in the cab or spray it at guards carrying cash into banks. In these cases it wasn’t meant to be permanent just very disorientating and pretty nasty.