Woman issues serious warning to all Brits after parasites ate eye away while washing face
A woman who got mud in her face and didn't take out her contact lenses for hours afterwards had to have her eye sewn shut after parasites 'ate' through her cornea.
47-year-old Emma Marsden had been mucking out horses on 28 February when she fell headfirst into a wheelbarrow of dirt and was 'covered' in mud.
Naturally she washed off the dirt, but didn't take out her contact lenses until the evening several hours later and four days later she felt a terrible stinging pain in her right eye.
Going to her GP, Emma was referred to hospital as she was suffering 'excruciating' pain, and the woman claimed doctors told her it was likely an ulcer before sending her how with some eyedrops.
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The pain in her right eye grew worse until she couldn't see out of the eye at all.
"It's pretty heartbreaking to think I might never see out of that eye again"
On 7 March she ended up being diagnosed with acanthamoeba keratitis, an eye infection caused by a parasite burrowing into Emma's cornea.
She was also diagnosed with fusarium keratitis, which is a fungal infection of the cornea, and corneal ulcers.
Doctors said Emma was infected when she washed her face while wearing contact lenses, as the burrowing parasites can be found in tap water.
Told that the parasite had 'eaten through' her cornea, Emma had her eyelids sewn together and was given eyedrops to use regularly.
Her eye, which had once been a blue-green, has turned grey and the woman said she was 'heartbroken' to be told she might never see out of her right eye again.
"My eye was excruciatingly painful and red"
Explaining that she'd slipped while clearing out the stables due to rain, Emma said she 'went headfirst into the wheelbarrow'.
She said: "I laughed at myself and I thought 'this is your own silly fault'.
"Mud covered my head, face, hands and hair. I went inside and I washed my hands and face and dried them off.
"It wasn't until four days later that my eye started stinging. It got worse and worse and I took my contact lenses out and got in the shower and it was still stinging.
"My eye was excruciatingly painful and red. When I woke up the next morning, any time light hit my eye the pain was so severe I couldn't open my eyes."
With her eyelids sewn together, Emma will eventually need a cornea transplant and has said that everything in her life has stopped because of the pain.
"I was in a dark room for three-and-a-half weeks and I couldn't go outside or do anything. I had all the lights off in the house and everyone had to eat in the dark," she explained.
"You can't go anywhere or do anything. The last three weeks are the only times I've been able to go outside and go for walks with my dogs and kids, you have no independence."
"Giving birth is a dream compared to this pain"
The mum of three said that she preferred giving birth to the eye pain from the parasite.
"It eats through your eye and cornea and all your nerves. The speed it ate at the doctors couldn't believe it," she told people in a warning that anyone planning on washing their face with water while wearing contact lenses would do well to heed.
While she needs a cornea transplant, Emma says it'll be 'a good number of years' away due to the parasite, and said she'd willingly have her eye removed if she's in the same situation two years on.
The woman said that the fungus she got infected with would have come from the dirt in the wheelbarrow, but was told that the parasite lives in tap water so she got it from when she washed her face.
Guidance for people wearing contact lenses is to not be wearing them when washing your face or showering.
"You've got to be careful with your eyes"
Emma's urging people to listen to the warnings and to take the proper precautions to avoid losing sight.
She said: "You don't think about the knock-on effect just by not taking your contact lenses out in the shower or to swim in, or to wash your face in my case.
"When you go to the opticians they do tell you don't swim or shower in your contact lenses because you might get an infection and that's it."
Explaining she's in 'a bad situation', she gets monitored weekly at the hospital and says that at least she can still walk, hear and see out of one eye.
She's still wearing her contact lenses in the other eye because she knows it was her actions and not the lenses that caused her predicament.
"I still wear my contact lenses in my left eye because it isn't the contact lens that did this but it was the wearer not having the knowledge of how to look after them properly and what not to do," she said.
"You've got to be careful with your eyes, until you've been through this or know someone you are quite blasé."
Joe Harker