Lifelong eye damage or just temporary?

Question

My friends brother got hit in the back of the head with a rock. According to my friend, his brother is now cross eyed, but doctors say he will go back to normal. It's been 3 days and his eye is still not right, has anyone ever heard of this? I'm looking for any information you can give me. The family is pretty upset by this and I'd like to give them more information on it, maybe to help them feel better, or to know what to expect.

Answer 1

Yes, that's not that rare.

It can take a few days through to three months to recover, if the damage is not permanent.  

If he has been assessed as being safe and otherwise healthy as far as the head injury goes,  there will be no active treatment for the eye alignment issue.

If there is double vision, glasses might help, but they could go out-of-date almost instantly: not a medical risk, just a financial one.  An eye patch might be a simple temporary answer, but he should not drive with either double vision or the eye patch.

If this is slow to resolve, checks every month of so should show when the position has become static and, at that point, depending on the exact findings, the possibilities of corrective glasses or surgery could be assessed but that would be months away, after the eyes had definitely stabilised.

Answer 2

Give it a few more days.  

When he was hit, it caused some bruising or swelling in the back of the head, where the eyes are controlled.  As this bruising or swelling clears up, his eyes will come back to normal.  

The other side of things is that there is presently nothing that can be done.  The damage is too deep to help with ice on the head.  Basically the only thing to do is let nature take its course.