The patient kept forgetting to remove her lenses before going to sleep, but never forgot to put new ones in
In a video sure to turn your stomach, an ophthalmologist has shared what happens when contact lenses get stuck behind people’s eyes.
Well, more precisely, what happens when 23 contact lenses get stuck, in a PSA aimed at, somewhat graphically, illustrating the importance of not sleeping with them in.
When Dr Katerina Kurteeva got a patient who said she felt like she had something in her eye and couldn’t get it out, the eye specialist set about identifying exactly what that was.
What she found was 23 individual contact lenses all packed behind the eye, a sight she’d never seen in 20 years of practice.
Be warned, the video below is rather unpleasant to watch.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cic7MNMMc_i/
Posting the footage on her @california_eye_associates Instagram account, Dr Kurteeva showed everyone exactly why people always tell you it’s a really bad idea to sleep in your contact lenses.
The video informs viewers that the patient kept forgetting to remove her lenses before going to sleep, but never forgot to put new ones in.
Dr Kurteeva explained to Insider how she managed to identify the problem and how all of the lost lenses just kept coming out of the patient’s eye.
“In nearly 20 years of practice, I had never seen anything like it,” she said, adding: “The patient couldn’t believe it either and asked if I was sure about the number I was counting.”
Dr Kurteeva said the patient was “very fortunate – she could have lost her vision, scratched her cornea, or gotten an infection”.
“Although I can’t be certain of how she managed to forget to remove all those lenses, it could because she had been wearing contact lenses for 30 years,” the doctor suggested.
While it is hard to believe anyone could not feel having so many lenses wedged behind their eyes, Dr Kurteeva explained that the patient’s long history of wearing the aid meant her eyes were probably less sensitive to the discomfort.
Two of the main rules with contact lenses are to not sleep or shower in them.
People can seriously damage their eyes by not taking them out to sleep and bacteria in the water can get stuck on the lenses and cause serious infections .
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