ORCADIAN farmer Paul Ross was involved in a serious incident on his farm in Sandwick, which caused him to suffer from temporary vision impairment.

The past NFUS regional chairman for Orkney was administering an antibiotic to one of his calves, which knocked him during the process, causing the syringe to go into his eye.

He was taken into theatre at Raigmore hospital in Inverness to investigate the damage to eye and was given the good news that no lasting damage had been done.

Sharing his story during Farm Safety Week, he sends a reminder to farmers and crofters that accidents can happen at any time, urging the industry to be pay close attention to tasks at hand.

“While feeding the cows I noticed a calf looking a bit dull and decided to treat it with an antibiotic. It was lying down, so I approached it quietly, injecting it,” Mr Ross explained. “Just when I was going to put the needle in, the calf moved unexpectedly, the syringe came out of my hand and the needle penetrated my eyeball. I was then aware of blood running down my face and realised I needed medical help.”

“Thankfully, they discovered that my eye was undamaged,” continued Paul. “I’d had vision impairment for a short period of time after the incident, and it was more sensitive to light, but thankfully it returned to normal not long afterwards.

“This was a totally unexpected accident and could easily have been a lot worse. The only precaution I could have taken was wearing goggles, but I couldn’t have foreseen this happening,” he concluded.