Contact lens horror stories including grisly Halloween infections, weeping ulcers and woman who found 27 lenses in eye
NOVELTY Halloween contact lenses are great for giving your mates a scare – but their true terror comes when they leave wearers with horrific eye problems.
And even your prescription daily lenses can end up causing stomach-turning ulcers or gruesome infections.
While three-and-a-half million Brits wear contacts on a daily basis, seemingly innocuous bad practices can lead to serious problems.
And with searches for “Halloween contacts” rocketing by 129 per cent this month, opticians are calling for party-goers to be careful when it comes to putting cheap products in their eyes.
“Special effects contact lenses have been around since the 1950s and when purchased from a reputable source they are a fun and safe addition to Halloween costumes,” says Katie Memory, director and managing partner at Memory Opticians.
“However, the risks of using cheap and unsafe contacts include painful infections, vision impairment and blindness.
The risks of using cheap and unsafe contacts include painful infections, vision impairment and blindness
Katie Memory
“While they might seem like a bit of fun, coloured contacts have the potential to be very dangerous and it is imperative to spend time and money on research and higher quality products.”
But even reputable lenses can cause worrying problems – with users getting them stuck behind their eyeballs and developing flesh-eating infections.
A ‘soupy, white necrosis’
Opticians always recommend contact lens users take theirs out before going to bed — and with good reason.
In 2019, one ophthalmologist shared appalling pictures of an eye ulcer which had “explosively” eaten the patient’s eye.
Dr Patrick Vollmer from North Carolina shared the images as a warning to others to remember to take contacts out before going to sleep.
Graphic photos show the woman’s eyes oozing with a bright yellow fluid after she developed a “cultured pseudomonas ulcer”, which can lead to permanent blindness.
Dr Vollmer wrote on Facebook: “This is the direct result of sleeping in contact lenses.”
He added: “The bacteria explosively eats away at the patient’s cornea in a matter of days leaving a soupy, white necrosis (dead tissue) in its wake.”
Research from the American College of Emergency Physicians studied the effects of sleeping with lenses in.
This is the direct result of sleeping in contact lenses.
Dr Patrick Vollmer
Lead author Dr Jon Femling concluded: “Sleeping in your contact lenses is risky and can lead to infections, or in some cases, permanent damage.
“Falling asleep, or even napping, without removing your contact lenses can significantly increase the likelihood of serious health problems.”
Symptoms can include pain, redness, discharge, blurred, and a white or yellow spot around the cornea.
Blinding bacterial infection
Sleeping isn’t the only commonplace activity you should avoid doing with your contacts in.
Because one 41-year-old Brit nearly lost her sight after she went swimming and showered without taking her lenses out.
She developed a nasty parasite infection called Acanthamoeba keratitis.
The condition, which affects between 1.2 and three million people every year, can spread severely and cause blindness if not treated quickly.
It’s caused by an invasion of microorganisms burrowing into the transparent front part of the eye called the cornea.
The microorganisms live in water and soil so any type of exposure to water while wearing contact lenses can put the wearer at risk.
This patient had pain, blurry vision and sensitivity to light for two months before she got help.
‘If I get my sight back I’ll never wear contacts again’
Nick Humphreys, 29, from Shropshire also contracted Acanthamoeba keratitis from showering with contacts in.
The journalist had to have two operations and is waiting for a corneal transplant after the parasite wormed its way into his eye.
He had no idea how dangerous it was to wear contacts in the shower and had only started wearing monthly lenses to improve his vision while exercising.
He said: “In my mid-twenties I really started to throw myself into exercise and at the time I thought my glasses were a massive hindrance.”
Nick realised something was wrong in January 2018 when he noticed a scratch on his eye, which eventually worsened until he was completely blind in that eye by March.
He spent months off work in pain and was unable to exercise while he was treated for the horrific infection.
Nick added: “I can honestly say if I’d had the slightest idea that this was even a remote possibility I would never have worn contacts in the first place.
“I’ve lost 18 months of my life because of something as simple as showering with contacts in. If I get my sight back I’ll never wear contacts again.”
Lens lost in eye for 28 years
As well as infections, contact lens wearers need to watch out for lenses going missing — in their eyes.
In 2018, one Dundee woman found she’d had a contact lens stuck behind her eye for 28 years without realising.
The unnamed 42-year-old went to her GP when her upper left eyelid became droopy and swollen.
An MRI revealed she had a cyst, which was identified as a rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lens lodged behind the eyelid.
The woman had been hit in the eye with a shuttlecock during a game of badminton when she was 14.
She looked for the lens at the time but couldn’t find it, and assumed it had been knocked out and lost.
The lens was only found by stunned surgeons during an operation to remove the cyst from her eye.
HOW TO USE CONTACT LENSES SAFELY
Looking after and using contact lenses properly is essential for keeping your eyes free from infections.
Make sure you always:
- Wash and dry your hands properly before handling your lenses
- Only wear them for the recommended amount of time
- Always have an up-to-date pair of glasses for when you take your contacts out
- Attend regular check-ups, even everything seems fine
- Get advice immediately if you have problems with your lenses like sore, red or swollen eyes
And make sure you never:
- Wear lenses, including novelty lenses, that weren’t properly fitted to your eyes
- Put water or saliva on your lenses or in your eye when you’re wearing them
- Put a dropped lens in your eye without cleaning it first
- Carry on wearing them if they feel or look bad, or if your vision blurs
- Use a lens if it looks damaged
- Sleep in your lenses (unless your practitioner says it’s OK to do so)
- Wear lenses while swimming or playing water sports
- Wear lenses in the shower or in a hot tub
- Wear someone elses contacts or share yours with anyone else
- Reuse a daily disposible lens
- Use eyedrops while wearing lenses, unless your practitioner tells you it’s safe to do so
Source: NHS
Publishing the astonishing find in the British Medical Journal, Dr Sirjhun Patel and colleagues wrote: “During surgery, an encapsulated cyst was found.
“On removal, the cyst ruptured and a hard contact lens was extracted.”
17 lenses glued together with mucus removed from eye
And some cases of missing contact lenses are just baffling — and revolting.
In 2017, doctors found not one, but 27 contact lenses stuck in the eye of a forgetful patient.
Perplexed medics made the disgusting discovery while preparing a 67-year-old woman for a routine cataract operation.
They spotted a “blueish mass” in the patient’s eye which, on closer inspection, was 17 lenses stuck together with eye mucus.
Another 10 lenses were separately found in the woman’s eye.
Speaking with Optometry Today at the time, ophthalmologist Rupal Marjaria who dealt with the case said: “None of us have ever seen this before.
“It was such a large mass. All the 17 contact lenses were stuck together.
“We were really surprised that the patient didn’t notice it because it would cause quite a lot irritation while it was sitting there.”
Eyes ‘burning like fire’
As well as prescription lenses, novelty fancy dress contacts can also pose a danger.
An 11-year-old Canadian girl went blind for four days in 2018 after wearing coloured contact lenses while trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Emilie Turcotte woke up screaming in pain the morning after as her eyes were “burning like fire”.
She was rushed to the hospital where doctors treated her “blood red” eyes while she couldn’t see anything for four days.
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They eventually discharged her and ordered Emilie to wear sunglasses for a month to let her damaged corneas heal.
Her mum, Julie, told the Montreal Journal: “For four days we were so scared. She could not see anything.
“All that for Halloween contact lenses.”