Tom Wood
A doctor has well and truly put people off contact lenses after detailing the case of a woman who ended up having to have her eye removed.
The TikTok doc, called GP Samuel, runs a series on his page called ‘New Fear Unlocked’ and – to be quite honest with you – if you’re a person who relies on contact lenses, it’ll probably live up to the name.
It concerns a woman from Leicestershire called Marie Mason, who developed a very strange problem that eventually led to the removal of her eye.
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The doctor explained: “She wears monthly contact lenses and often showered, until one day when her vision deproved.
“Her optician immediately sent her to see her eye specialist, where they diagnosed her with [a] contact lens-related infection.
“Unfortunately for her, this was not your typical bacterial infection.
“They found that this was caused by a parasite that can be found in tap water, that can go underneath your contact lens when you shower.
“That parasite is called acanthamoeba.”
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GP Samuel went on: “As the name suggests, it is an amoeba, not a virus [and] not a bacteria, which also means that typical antibiotic eye drops are not very effective against this.
“This explains why Marie suffered for five years and despite trying multiple medications [and] having three corneal transplants she ended up needing to remove her eye.
“Most people will be like ‘stop scaring us, this is rare, contact lens infections only affect about one in 5,000 people, acanthamoeba is even rarer’ but when severe, [it] can cause loss of vision.
“I know most of you guys will still wear contact lenses, so this is how to minimise your risk.
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“One – don’t swim, sleep, or shower with them on.
“Dailies have a lower risk, do not reuse dailies.
“Always wash your hands before handling contact lenses, only use approved solutions, change your lens case regularly.”
This incident took place in 2015, but continued for several years until Marie eventually had to have her eye taken out.
Now, she’s back at work and is leading an almost normal life once again, although she admitted that she does ‘struggle sometimes’.
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After the ordeal in late 2022, she said: "My life is alright now, I haven't gone back to work to the place I left, but I now work for my husband.
"I'm also heavily involved with the church where I do a lot of voluntary work so my life has changed, but it's a nice change, and it's different.
"The only thing I've not gone back to is driving, I stopped driving quite early on in the journey because I wasn't comfortable with it, and I haven't got the confidence to go back to it, so that's the main thing that's changed for me.
"I do struggle sometimes because my vision on my left side is rubbish, well it's not there.
"It's quite hard walking down the street when you've got people whizzing by you, and it makes you jump a bit because you don't expect it."