Fireworks Explode in Eye
Disaster strikes him on New Year’s Eve. A firework explodes in his face. From one moment to the next, soccer player Teun Martens of Olympia ’18 in Boxmeer is blind in one eye.
Olympia soccer player Teun (25) is blind in one eye
The bandage on his face betrays the tragedy. The sterile gauze pad, white and oval. That’s how his right eye is covered. Teun Martens (25) has been living with it for months. After a fireworks accident on December 31, the defender for the Olympia’18 soccer club in Boxmeer is used to nothing else. “When I walk through town, I notice people looking at me—longer than usual. At the bandage; it really stands out.”
“It turned out that 75 percent of my eye was burned.” He had to have surgery. And again in February. “The day after I was told that I might be able to see properly again someday, I lost my sight completely. It will stay that way. At the end of this month, I’m going to see the ocularist, and on April 20, I can pick up the prosthesis. I’m positive—I’ve always been that way. I don’t want people to think I’m a pity case. Of course, this is all very surreal, and I’m going through a grieving process. But I’ve told my story many times before. That makes it easier.”
