Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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Samantha Hayes reportingIn an instant and with a toy your child may have, a 13-year-old lost his sight in one eye.
Chris Robins, Blinded by paint ball: "It went directly into my eyes."
A paint ball gun is to blame. But the accident did not happen like you may expect.
Laura Robins, Mother: "I sat when him until the paramedics came."
The boy had all the safety equipment, including goggles to cover his face. He was shooting at rocks when his paint ball gun jammed and he tried to fix it.
This is going to get the attention of a lot of parents, because paint ball guns are very popular and easy to get.
But what has happened to 13-year-old Chris Robbing is not easy to deal with. A simple mistake made yesterday will be with him the rest of his life.
270 feet a second, that's how fast paint balls hit a target from several yards away. One hit Chris Robins, just inches from his face.
Chris Robins, Blinded by paint ball: "It was bleeding a lot."
Laura Robins, Mother: "The cornea blew apart. His eye deflated, lens fell out somehow."
Doctors reconstructed his eyeball in surgery, but Robins can sense only light and dark out of his left eye.
Chris Robins, Blinded by paint ball: "First time I ever got hurt by it."
He was shooting at rocks with his buddies in a friend's backyard when his gun stopped working.
Chris Robins, Blinded by paint ball: "And I thought it might have been jammed in the barrel so I looked down there and it fired at me."
He was wearing a mask, but had lifted up the visor for a moment to see down inside.
Chris Robins, Blinded by paint ball: "I didn't want to be blind. But I talked to people who go on to do good stuff."
Which may include telling other kids how to stay safe. That's the priority for Lisa Labrum. She owns and operates a local paint ball store and play field.
Lisa Labrum, Paint Ball Addicts: "Too often kids go into Kmart, Wal-Mart and buy a paint ball gun take it out to their backyard and shoot at each other."
Without safety precautions, Labrum says it's like playing with real weapons.
Lisa Labrum, Paint Ball Addicts: "I would like a safety standard in place."
If your child has a paintball gun, check out the safe way play with it, clean it and store it, as well as the proper equipment to wear.
