In May 2019, Emily Kelleher, a high school English teacher in Massachusetts, woke up in excruciating pain.
Her left eye felt like it was being stabbed by a ‘knife or an ice pick’ and was blood red. She put on her glasses, but still couldn’t see out of the affected eye.
She went to the doctor, who saw flecks of white, cloudy material all over her eye. Eventually, they diagnosed Ms Kelleher with a rare parasitic infection, called acanthamoeba keratitis.
Her doctors told her she likely got it when the parasites got into her eye while showering with contacts, something she used to do every day.
‘Tell your friends. Learn from me, because I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,’ Ms Kelleher said.
About 45 million people in the United States wear contact lenses.
Though they may seem like an every day accessories, the CDC notes that contacts are medical devices, and using them improperly can lead to infection, scarring and blindness.
In rare cases like Ms Kelleher they can cause painful parasitic infections.
These bugs live in water, and can get into the eye through microscopic tears in the cornea. They burrow this clear outer layer of her eyeball and breed, multiplying and eating the healthy tissue there.
