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Solomon saves man's eye after cat attack by Lynne Langley Of The Post and Courier Staff  When Leon “Junior” Casselman went turkey hunting last week, the West Andrews resident didn't expect to wrestle with a burly bobcat, temporarily go blind from the wounds and wind up on CNN Headline News. “He's a very lucky man. Ten years ago, he may have lost his eye,” said ophthalmologist Kerry D. Solomon, M.D., who has operated twice so far and expects Casselman eventually will have 20/20 vision. Dressed in camouflage, Casselman was sitting on the ground and calling turkeys about 8:30 a.m. on April 2. A gobbler and hens appeared  across an opening, so the 33-year-old father of two stopped calling and watched the birds through binoculars for about 10-minutes. He barely saw the big cat as it leaped onto his back and gripped his head with its left paw, driving a claw about 3/4 of an inch into his eyeball. “His head was right behind my head,” said Casselman, who thought the cat was looking for a place to sink its teeth.  “He probably couldn't make out what I was. He probably thought I was small enough to kill,” said the 5-foot-10-inch, 197-pounder. Casselman instinctively tried to turn, grab the cat and stand up to show the animal his full size. The bobcat clawed his right arm with three long gashes. “If he had taken a mind to it and attacked again, it could have been worse. I think that's what he was thinking until I got up and he saw how big I was.” Bleeding and temporarily blind in both eyes, he could still hear the bobcat nearby. His 12-gauge shotgun lay to his right, somewhere, with the safety on. Casselman finally found it. “I tried to keep it aimed at where his sound was coming from. I got the safety off. He got about 30 feet away before I could see enough to shoot,” he said, adding his vision was very blurry. He didn't think he'd hit the cat, which stood about as high as a Walker dog.  “I knew my eye was split, but I didn't know how bad it was. I knew it was pouring blood.” Casselman crossed a ditch, reached a dirt road and walked about a mile to his truck. Then he drove about 10 miles to the home of his brother Billy Casselman, who later said he thought Junior's eye was totally gone. So did Junior's wife Nichole, who loaded up her husband and rushed to the nearest hospital in Georgetown. Staff there bandaged his eye and alerted the Medical University of South Carolina's Storm Eye Institute. Solomon expected some cuts on the eyelid. “It was a bulls-eye. The claw went right though the eye. ... It was a very serious injury.” The bobcat claw penetrated 1/2 to 3/4 inches deep, tore across the cornea and two parts of the iris then came out, tearing almost the whole front lens in the process. “There were a fair amount of challenges,” said Solomon, not the least of which was the risk of rabies and of infection, given that the bobcat hadn't sterilized its claws and rabies treatment is toxic to the eye. Solomon immediately stitched the cornea, the front window of the eye, and began treatment to prevent infection as well as inflammation and glaucoma. A week later, this Tuesday, Solomon essentially performed cataract surgery, an operation the bobcat began by clawing open the front of  the lens. Solomon removed the lens, inserted and unfolded a new lens in outpatient surgery. By Friday Casselman had 20/40 vision, and the prognosis for 20/20 is excellent, Solomon said. The ophthalmologist plans to remove the cornea stitches in a couple of weeks. Astigmatism or glare in the iris could develop, but both are treatable, he said. Solomon said he hopes the avid hunter, whose story was noted Thursday on CNN, won't put shotgun to eye for a while.  The father of 8-year-old Sabrina and 2-year-old Cole was doing  carpentry and auto repairs before his injury and said he can't wait to return to his projects and the woods where he grew up hunting. “I plan to get me back out there and get another turkey,” he said, noting that turkey season ends late this month. He also hunts deer and other game but quit taking bobcats four or five years ago. They play an important role in nature, he said. “You can't hold it against all the cats for what one was,” he said, adding that his nemesis probably mistook him for prey because he was wearing camouflage and sitting down. “You can't be afraid of all cats for what one does. But that one and  I might not see eye to eye when I get back out there.” Editor's note: The article ran April 13 in the Post and Courier and is reprinted with permission.