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Anderson Cooper temporarily blinded while on '60 Minutes' assignment

Anderson Cooper is back to good health after he was recently blinded on the job. Luckily for the "Anderson Live" host, the eye affliction wasn't permanent. "Temporarily blinded last week while on assignment," the 45-year-old posted on Instagram with a photo of a large white patch covering his right eye. "UV light bouncing off water. Much better now. Details today on #andersonlive."Anderson Co
Anderson Cooper
Anderson CooperJason Redmond / REUTERS file / Today

Anderson Cooper is back to good health after he was recently blinded on the job. Luckily for the "Anderson Live" host, the eye affliction wasn't permanent. 

"Temporarily blinded last week while on assignment," the 45-year-old posted on Instagram with a photo of a large white patch covering his right eye. "UV light bouncing off water. Much better now. Details today on #andersonlive."

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Cooper went on to further explain on his show that the injury occurred while he spent several hours filming a segment for "60 Minutes" in a coastal area of Portugal.

"I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like my eyes are on fire," he said. "It turns out I have sunburned my eyeballs and I go blind. I went blind for 36 hours. I took this picture of me after I went to the hospital. I went to see a doctor."

Cooper later consulted with NBC's chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who explained that the blindness was caused by the light reflecting off the water burning his retinas, much like how sunlight reflected off of snow can burn the eyes of skiers and snowboarders.

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Cooper's hospital visit could have been avoided through the use of protective sunglasses.

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And now that he's all better, it's good to hear that Cooper has a sense of humor about the whole ordeal. While sharing another photo of his bandaged eye to his audience, Cooper joked, "That's my new Match.com profile picture, by the way."

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