Anderson Cooper Blind: CNN Man Blinded After Burning Retinas (PHOTO)
Anderson Cooper has explained how he went blind after undergoing an assignment in Europe recently. However, it has been confirmed that he was only blinded temporarily, and he later regained his sight and his health has returned.
The incident came as a big shock and initially Cooper was unsure what had caused the blindness – he simply woke up with his eyes in intense pain and being unable to see.
The CNN correspondent posted onto his Instagram account, "Temporarily blinded last week while on assignment."
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The post was placed beside a photo showing Cooper with a large white patch over his right eye.
Cooper explained, "UV light bouncing off water. Much better now. Details today on #andersonlive."
The reporter explained that the incident happened as he was on an assignment for a "60 Minutes" segment.
Apparently the CNN man said that he been filming for a number of hours in a coastal area of Portugal in the sunlight. However, the affects of the day would only reveal themselves later that night.
Cooper said, "I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like my eyes are on fire. It turns out I have sunburned my eyeballs and I go blind. I went blind for 36 hours. I took this picture of me after I went to the hospital. I went to see a doctor."
Cooper said that he consulted with NBC's Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who explained that the problem was caused by sunlight reflecting off the water, with the resulting UV rays burning his retinas.
It is said that this is possible in a similar way as how sunlight reflects off of snow. For that reason skiers who spend hours in the sun while skiing wear UV-protection googles.
Luckily for Cooper the blindness was only temporary and he is reportedly all better now.
In addition he is now finding the funny side of what happened to him, later suggesting that photo of himself featuring the bandage over his face would be used for his profile page on dating website Match.com.
