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SANTIAGO, Chile — Brandon González, 19, marched with a group of protesters down the main artery of this Andean capital on Oct. 28 when riot police barricading the way to the presidential palace opened fire with tear gas and hardened rubber bullets.

Mr. González, who had come from his hospital job equipped with bandages and gauze to treat injured protesters, picked up a stone and hurled it at a police vehicle pumping tear gas into the crowd. Seconds later, he saw an officer about 25 feet away aim a rifle at his face.

“I felt an impact in my eye, and it all went black. I held up my hands so they would stop shooting and then laid on the ground, and they shot me three more times,” said Mr. González, who works as a hospital assistant. “I thought, they are going to kill me.”

At least 285 people in Chile have suffered severe eye trauma, mostly from hardened rubber bullets and tear gas canisters fired by Chilean security forces at protesters during the month of unrest. According to the Chilean Ophthalmological Society, that count is expected to rise.

The image of a bandaged eye is now so common it has become a rallying symbol for the protesters in Chile. Even so, the likelihood of such life-altering injury has not deterred demonstrators. New york times, october 2019

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