Anderson Cooper's work trip to Portugal to shoot a story for "60 Minutes" on a coast turned into a nightmare when the news anchor was blinded for 36 hours. The temporary blindness was caused by UV light, which glanced on the water.

On Tuesday, December 4, he shared on Instagram a picture of him wearing an eye patch. "Temporarily blinded last week while on assignment. UV light bouncing off water. Much better now," he stated on the photograph.

The 45-year-old journalist further detailed the incident on "Anderson Live", "I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like my eyes are on fire." He went on, "It turns out I have sunburned my eyeballs and I go blind. I went blind for 36 hours. I took this picture of me [the Instagram picture] after I went to the hospital."

The "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" news anchor then joked, "That's my new Match.com profile picture, by the way." During the show, NBC's chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman told Anderson, "Fortunately for you you're going to be fine, but it's a real reminder."

The doctor explained that he suffered a retina burn. It's also likely to happen to skiers and snowboarders when sunlight glanced on snow and burned their eyes. She then warned the audience, "It's a reminder that frankly everyone needs sunglasses."