Kira Smith said that in March 2021 she rinsed the lenses under running water and put them back on her eyes.
A few weeks later, a 25-year-old man contracted Acanthamoeba keratitis, a vision-threatening infection of the cornea.
The dental office worker explained that she felt pops in her left eye when she put on contact lenses to go to work, but did not attach much importance to this.
Kayla, who lives in New Mexico, USA, said: “When I got home from work that evening, I took my contact lenses off and my eyes were clearly red, but there was no pain or anything.
“I just thought it had something to do with my contact lenses as they can be uncomfortable and irritate my eyes.
Red Contact Lenses
“I woke up the next day and my eyes were more red, and at night it started to hurt more, and since then I have been worried.
“The next day I went to the optometrist and he couldn’t give me a definitive answer, but he thought it might be some kind of infection, so he gave me eye drops.”
He looked into her eyes under a microscope and exclaimed “what is this”, which, according to Kayla, “really scared her”.
She said: “After six weeks of tossing back and forth, they still couldn’t tell me what was wrong with my eye – at one point they told me it could be herpes and gave me medicine that didn’t work.
“After that, everything went awry – my light sensitivity became so bad that I couldn’t go outside or look at my phone, it spread to the other eye, so that even using my healthy eye caused a lot of pain.
“I started going blind in April, and then it all went away very quickly – first there was a spot in the corner of my eye, then it spread, and after two weeks my vision was completely gone.”
It is caused by a common microbe called Acanthamoeba, which is commonly found in bodies of water such as lakes, oceans, and rivers.
This is because they most likely used a solution that did not clean the lenses effectively, or the lenses were contaminated with water.
However, they said it was problematic as she suffered for more than six weeks without any treatment.
“I was scared and very excited because I didn’t know what this meant for me and my vision. It was difficult to deal with it,” she added.
Blinded in one eye, she was unable to work or do basic things on her own for five months, so she had to move her mother to her apartment to take care of her.
The pressure and sensitivity to light in Kayla’s left eye even extended to her “intact” right eye, forcing her to board up all the windows in her apartment and generally stay out of the sun except for visits to the doctor.
Doctors prescribed her a variety of antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, steroids and eye drops to fight the infection.
In April, they said they had killed the parasite, so Kayla had a cornea transplant to restore her sight.
“I couldn’t do anything by myself, and my mom even had to do my hair,” she recalls. “By the end, I started to feel like everything was winning over me.”
“They (the doctors) were concerned that my eye had re-infected and reacted to the medication, which means the parasite is still present and active.
“So now the situation has to stabilize before I can do another transplant – they can’t tell me when it will be done, it just depends on when the parasite dies.
“Things are starting to improve and they expect that after the transplant I will get back most of my vision.”
Red Contact Lenses
After her ordeal, she vowed never to rinse contact lenses with tap water again and urged others to be careful not to expose their lenses to harmful bacteria.
Kira said: “I didn’t expect this to happen – I knew showering or swimming with contact lenses was not good, but I didn’t know it could be caused by simply rinsing a contact lens case with tap water.
“Now I wear glasses all the time. I haven’t worn contact lenses since the symptoms started.
“I don’t think it will prevent me from wearing contact lenses at all when my vision returns, but I just have a better understanding of what will happen.
“I always recommend taking the advice of your ophthalmologist and never neglect your lenses – there are many things that cannot happen and they can happen very quickly.
“So it’s important to understand the risks and understand that wearing contact lenses is a privilege and that you have to take good care of your eyes.”
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Post time: Jul-25-2023
