Attendees of Trump's Tuscon Rally Complain of Mysterious Eye Illness That Nearly Made Them Blind

It's becoming riskier for former president Donald Trump and his loyal supporters to attend political rallies. The Republican nominee has already escaped an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania and according to the most recent information, at least six attendees of the political event in Tucson, Arizona, last Thursday experienced "burning" red eyes in the hours following it and were forced to visit the emergency room. Pro-life activist Mayra Rodriguez reported that shortly after returning home from the rally, she felt as if her "eyes were burning". “As soon as we left and we stepped outside my eyes were burning," Rodriguez exclusively told KVOA.

“The emergency room staff, from the triage nurse to the PA [Physicians Assistant] asked are you sure you didn’t get sprayed with something your symptoms look like you got sprayed with something," she continued. Rodriguez feared that she was going completely blind, “I can’t see anything when I try to open my eyes. I see a bright light. It hurts, it hurts a lot to open my eyes. I have this cold cloth I put on and take off constantly. It's horrible," she explained. 

She said that the physicians were unable to determine the precise source of her mysterious eye illness. As of Tuesday, her vision has begun to improve, her first assumption that it was allergies seemed to vanish when she began to receive reports from other attendees who were seated close to her experiencing the same symptoms. "It kept getting worse and worse, my eyes were watering a lot, my nose started running then I started feeling my face get really flushed and my neck felt like it was on fire and it just progressed from there,' another anonymous attendee revealed. 

The brother of the unnamed woman experienced the same problems: "It was all focused on my eyes, my eyes were red like hell you know, it's unbearable. I couldn't handle it." Due to blindness, another Trump fan who works as a local realtor was forced to cancel all of her planned business for the weekend. According to the Daily Mail, A spokesperson from Trump's team said, "The Trump campaign has been collecting information. We remain committed to the countless patriots that attend our high-energy, high-impact rallies across the country." According to a Secret Service spokesman, the GOP nominee is not currently facing any threats. 

According to two well-known doctors who spoke to the Daily Mail, there might be a problem with the air conditioner since it's either blowing too hard and drying out people's eyes or blowing fine dust irritating the eyes. Dr Talin Amadian, an optometrist in Los Angeles, said, "My train of thought is going towards this is something with the AC and the vents that are there. 'They do blast the AC pretty strongly in these buildings, and sometimes this could dry out the surface membranes of the eyes." She added, "I have sat under an AC vent in a long meeting and just the airflow, the constant airflow, it can irritate the eyes and sometimes dry them out." 

New York City emergency medicine physician Dr. Stuart Fischer concurred, "It could be something in the air conditioning vents that was blown onto attendees because it's only affecting those in part of the stage. It could have been sand, sawdust, anything really. It may be that something blew over these people and they all rubbed their eyes, which is the worst thing you can probably do if something is coating the front of the eyes because it can cause abrasions (scratches)." The American Academy of Ophthalmologists' clinical representative further speculated that a material in the air that was blasted into attendees might have been the source. Since sickness had only been recorded in one location, the doctors remained suspicious that there might have been a problem with the building's air conditioning system.