A blinding stage light or faulty air conditioning system are among the leading theories for what caused a spate of mysterious illnesses at a Trump rally.
A dozen people who sat stage right behind the former President in Tucson, Arizona, last Thursday suffered from ‘burning’ red eyes in the hours after the political gathering and had to go to the ER.
Others said they were left ‘blinded’ by any bright lights in the days afterward, and had to hide indoors with a towel over their heaad and suffer constant pain.
Two doctors told DailyMail.com they believed this may be an issue with the AC, with it either blowing too strongly and drying out attendees eyes or blowing a fine dust into their eyes that caused irritation and damage.
The above shows Trump during the rally in Tucson music hall. Those who were on stage right of the former President have reported the injuries
A third suggested, however, that it was most likely to be a faulty stage light that had caused the illnesses after blasting strong UV light onto the attendees throughout the one-hour and 18-minute rally.
Some people online have suggested the injuries could be down to a pepper spray or other chemical substances, but the doctors said this was unlikely — adding that a pepper spray would likely have caused immediate symptoms.
It remains unclear whether this was an intentional act or simply down to a faulty system in the building.
A spokesperson for the US Secret Service said there was no known threat to the former President at the rally.
The Trump campaign said in a statement: ‘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.’
It is the second scare to hit a Trump rally in just two days, after reports circulated yesterday that there were explosives found in a car.
And in mid-July, one person died and two were critically injured during an assassination attempt on Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania.
Mayra Rodriguez, a former Clinton supporter turned Trump fan and pro-life advocate, said that her ‘eyes were burning’ once she left the rally and headed for the emergency room shortly after getting home from the speech
Above shows a woman who asked not to be identified but also said she suffered from problems with her eyes after attending the Trump rally
Dr Talin Amadian, an optometrist in Los Angeles, told this website: ‘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.
‘It’s also possible that maybe there was some dust in the AC vents — and this could have [been blown onto attendees].’
She added: ‘I have sat under an AC vent in a long meeting and just the air flow, the constant air flow, it can irritate the eyes and sometimes dry them out.’
Dr Stuart Fischer, an emergency medicine physician in New York City agreed, saying: ‘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 clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Opthalmologists also suggested to DailyMail.com that the reactions could have been caused by a substance in the air that was blown onto attendees.
The doctors said that symptoms of this eye damage would emerge within hours after the rally and likely then prompt patients to go to the ER.
But they said the damage wouldn’t be permanent, with many attendees eyes recovering in the days afterward.
They said that the fact the injuries were only reported in one area made them suspicious for a faulty air conditioning unit blowing air onto only part of the crowd.
The injuries were first reported on Tuesday this week, five days after the rally, although the first patient came forward on Friday last week, just a day after the rally took place.
Dr Robert Cykiert, an ophthalmologist at NYU Langone Health, suggesting to DailyMail.com that the injuries were likely down to a faulty stage light.
He said: ‘The symptoms that these people are reporting are pretty classic for what we call UV keratitis, or ultra-violet keratitis.
‘If UV light is of high intensity and aimed at your eyes, it will burn the surface of the cornea and it will give you intense pain, blurry vision, tears, redness and swelling in the eyes that lasts for about 24 to 48 hours.
Kathleen Winn, former congressional district six candidate for Arizona, was seated on the opposite side of the stage and said she was unaware of any injuries in the area where she was sat
‘I see patients with this who go to sun parlors and they sit under UV to get a sun tan and don’t wear the plastic goggles, and they get these very typical UV burns in the cornea.
‘We also occasionally see this in people who do mountain climbing and go up to high altitudes. The symptoms take a few hours to develop because the cells don’t die until a few hours after the exposure.’
It was possible that tungsten halogen lamps — often used in theaters for stage lighting — or similar could have caused the injuries, he said, if they were defective or had been fitted with the wrong type of bulb.
Dr Cykiert added: ‘That is the most likely scenario.
‘The question is was this done on purpose as another way to attack Trump and his supporters or whether this was some sort of defective lighting that these people were accidentally exposed to’.
He called for a full investiagtion by the local authorities, Secret Service and FBI into the injuries.
All three doctors said they thought it was unlikely that the injuries had been caused by pepper spray because this would likely cause an ‘immediate reaction’.
They also said that if anyone had sprayed the chemical in the building they would likely have immediately been spotted by security or the crowd or caught on a camera.
Dr Amadian said: ‘I did think of that, but that would be something that would have been caught on the cameras or by attendees, you know.
‘I just feel like with security and everything now, people are very aware of who is going in and what is going in, so I assume that would have been noticed by now.’
A fourth doctor, Dr James dello Russo — an optometrist in New Jersey — suggested to this website, however, that it was possible that pepper spray may have been released by someone within the stand on stage right.
One of the patients who was affected was Myra Rodriguez who began to feel pain in her eyes as soon as she left the rally and said by the next morning she could only see a ‘white cloud’ out of her eyes.
She had to stay indoors and keep them covered with a cold wet towel because of the pain.
She told News 4 Tucson, which first reported the injuries: ‘As soon as we left and I stepped outside I started to feel like my eyes were burning.
‘[At the moment], 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.’
‘The emergency room staff kept saying from the triage nurse to the PA, “are you sure you were not sprayed with something?”.’
Ms Rodriguez drove the 90 minutes back to Phoenix after the rally but said the pain in her eyes then became so severe that she went to the ER.
Her daughter Alexandra Olvera, who spoke to DailyMail.com, said that her mother had now mostly recovered from the incident.
A brother and sister who sat near Ms Rodriguez, but asked not to be identified, also shared their symptoms.
The brother said: ‘It was all focused on my eyes, my eyes were red like hell, you know, it’s unbearable. I couldn’t handle it.’
His sister added: ‘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 woman said she had to cancel all her appointments over the coming week with clients because the rally had left her unable to see.
Dr Ami Vadada, an ophthalmologist and clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said: ‘The description of symptoms appear consistent with irritation to the cornea, or the front surface of the eye.
‘If the event was windy, it’s possible that dust or other allergens could have come in contact with the eye, causing redness, tearing and burning. Aerosolized substances can also irritate the eye as well.’
