CLEVELAND -- Many of us take for granted our ability to see until something happens that threatens to take that sight away.

NewsChannel5's Alicia Booth reported on a Parma man who survived a war but nearly lost his life and his eyesight at his civilian job.

Jason Meadows and his wife Laurie have grown accustomed to living with danger. Meadows is a member of the 3/25 Marines, the Brook Park-based reserves unit that lost 48 members in Iraq.

Meadows was one of the lucky ones: He spent 10 months in Iraq and returned unscathed. He had no idea the real danger was waiting for him at home, Booth reported.

Working at a foundry in Avon, Meadows was melting metals when something went wrong and the furnace in front of him exploded, spewing fiery, caustic chemicals right at him.

"It's kind of burning, so I just immediately just pushed away from the furnace, go to somewhere I knew there was a safe spot, threw off my safety glasses and ripped off the shirt that I had on," Meadows said.

Meadows' head and back were burned but his eyes took the worst of it. His safety glasses didn't protect him, and he had to face the fact that he may never see again.

At the time, his wife was four months pregnant.

"At this point, I'm thinking he's never going to get to see me again, he's never going to get to see him born," Laurie Meadows said.

Meadows' eyes were cooked shut. MetroHealth Medical Center ophthalmologist Thomas Steinemann said he had no doubt that his patient had a tough road ahead.

"We knew that we were going to have a difficult time getting his eyes to heal," He said.

Laurie knew it too, but the couple never lost faith.

"We're not going to be given more than we can handle, so we just tried to stay positive," she said.

Steinemann used a cutting-edge procedure on Meadows. Twice, he stitched an amniotic membrane made from parts of a placenta.

"It's like tissue paper. We use it to line the inside of the eyelids and drape it over the surface of the burned eye," Steinemann said.

The procedure worked, and Meadows was able to watch his son, Brayden, come into the world. Even, better he was able to see his daughter meet her little brother for the first time.

"Knowing that I'll be able to see them grow up I would say is probably the best thing," he said.

Meadows suffers from major light sensitivity and dryness but he can see, and he said he will never take that for granted again.