A 42-year-old electrician in California developed star-shaped cataracts after an electric shock of 14,000 volts to the left shoulder, according to a write-up about the incident featured in The New England Journal of Medicine. A LiveScience report notes that the electric current moved through the optic nerve — the role of the optic nerve is to transfer visual data from the retina to the vision centers of the brain via electrical impulses, according to Healthline.
“The optic nerve is similar to any wire that conducts electricity,” Dr. Bobby Korn, an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of California, San Diego, who treated the patient, told LiveScience. “In this case, the extreme current and voltage that passed through this important natural wire caused damage to the optic nerve itself.”