Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw said he’ll be ‘essentially blind’ for a month after emergency eye surgery

• Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw said he’ll be “essentially blind” for at least a month.
• Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, lost his right eye while serving in Afghanistan in 2012.
• Crenshaw said he underwent emergency surgery Friday in Houston for a detached retina in his left eye.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a two-term Republican representing Texas, said Saturday that he’d be “essentially blind” for at least the next month after he underwent emergency surgery on his eye Friday.

In a press release posted Saturday to Twitter, Crenshaw said he would be “off the grid for the next few weeks” following the surgery. He said he first noticed a problem earlier in the week when he noticed some “dark, blurry spots” in his vision.

Read more: Congressional stock report: Diet Coke-loving Debbie Dingell buys the competition, environmentalist Lois Frankel eyes oil, and Dan Crenshaw gets his move on

When he went to a doctor Thursday, Crenshaw said he learned that his retina was detaching. Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL has just one eye after a 2012 IED blast in Afghanistan cost him his right eye. The blast also caused damage to his remaining eye, including a cataract, excessive tissue damage, and damage to his retina, he said Saturday.

-Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) April 10, 2021

“This is a terrifying prognosis for someone with one eye, and the nature of the injuries that I sustained in Afghanistan,” Crenshaw said in a statement issued by his office on Saturday. “Anyone who knows the history of my injuries knows that I don’t have a ‘good eye,’ but half a good eye.

Crenshaw said he had surgery Friday at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston. Doctors placed a gas bubble in his eye to act as a “bandage” for his retina, he said. He added he will be “face-down for the next week or so” and unable to see anything.

“The surgery went well, but I will be effectively blind for about a month,” he said.

“This is why you’re not going to hear from me for a while,” Crenshaw added. “I likely will not be conducting interviews and likely will not be posting on social media, except to give updates on my health and recovery.”