Poked in the eye ...

Okay, I'll take an initial crack at this-

A dowel rod, if made of wood, would cause a LOT of damage to the eye as it wedged into said area. At the least there would be tearing of the sclera. At worst the eye would go pop (as in, pop open). That's nay good. I don't know if you could get it to pop out in this scenario. Perhaps if the rod was then jammed over...

Read up on the guy who had a metal rod go through his eye(?) and up into his forebrain, WALKED to the hospital, and lived. But, the rod went through his emotional (?) center and he was never the same (Someone will chime in with his name).

The forebrain is not critical for life. I'm not sure a dowel rod would penetrate bone (depends on the material) and into the brain, especially if it only went 3 inches. My guess is it would jam the optic nerve of the eye in question and possibly pull on the other optic nerve- thus causing issues in the other eye.

Also in that area are sinuses, but I haven't studied the human skull. Go have a look at the skull, in detail, and decide what your rod is doing (where it's going)

Does that help?

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CATastrophe said:

I'd like to know if it's possible for an eye to be dislodged out of the socket by a dowel rod approximately a half inch in diameter that enters at the corner of the eye closest to the nose.

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yes, but the eye is held in place by muscles, blood vessels and the optic nerve. The nerve and vessels don't have much in the way of stretch and so if the eye is actually popped out of place by other than a trained professional, it would most likely result in blindness. There is a possibility that it could penetrate without any major damage, and only displace the eye laterally. However, if there is a long piece of wood sticking out, it would be difficult not to accidentally use it like a crowbar to pop out the eye. It would require a lot of luck.

CATastrophe said:

Also, if the dowel penetrates about 3 inches or so, would that be an automatic kill? What else might be possible?

Thanks so much!

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Thats about how deep it is from the skin to the back of the eye socket, so the injury could be limited to only the eye, however the back of the eye socket bones are very fragile. There would be a serious concern about those breaking and tearing into the dura mater (the outer covering on the brain). That could result in direct brain damage, or infection. A chance of death is real, but it would likely be slow.

Down the guys throat? Dang, that had a lot of structures to drive through! Ow ow ow ow ow!
So, um, Cat... do you know the guy who walked around with a rod in his brain? What's his name that is... I wanna read up on him now, lol.

ColoradoGuy said:

I suspect that injury would most likely cause a ruptured globe of the eyeball and quite possibly a "blow-out" fracture of at least some of the surrounding bones that form the eye socket.

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The globe of the eye is surprisingly resilient (although cataracts can still make you blind). I was shot with a black powder blank at point blank range, had holes (the size of grains of black powder) burned through my eyes and can still see. Although I did lose some vitreous humor and didn't know for a few days til they took off the bandages whether I'd see at all. I wear glasses since then, when I didn't need them before, but still my eyes are only 20/40 now, without glasses. Then again, maybe I'm the exception. I certainly would not advocate any eye injury.