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Article OMG! How could this happen?

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The British Medical Journal has reported that doctors made a bizarre discovery whilst prepping a 67-year-old woman for surgery.

They found 27 contact lenses inside her eye!

All of the lenses were stuck together “blueish mass” and were “bound together by mucus,” according to the article, which was authored by Rupal Morjaria, a specialist trainee ophthalmologist, Richard Crombie, a consultant anesthesiologist and Amit Patel, a consultant ophthalmologist.

“She was quite shocked,” Dr Morjaria, who worked on the patient, told Optometry Today. “When she was seen two weeks after I removed the lenses she said her eyes felt a lot more comfortable.”

“None of us have ever seen this before,” Dr Morjaria said. In fact, she chose to publish the case because most doctors didn’t think it would be possible for such a thing to happen or to lose so many contact lenses in one’s eyes without suffering from severe symptoms.

The patient had worn monthly contact lenses for 35 years, and she rarely visited the optmetrist. But she had cataracts, so last November, doctors were injecting anaesthesia into her eyes for surgery when they discovered the mass.
“It was such a large mass,” Dr Morjaria said. “We were really surprised that the patient didn’t notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there.”
“Patients do sometimes present with a contact lens stuck under their upper eyelid, particularly if they are new to contact lens wear, or have problems with dexterity, but finding this many lenses stuck in someone’s eye is exceedingly rare,” Association of Optometrists clinical and regulatory officer Henry Leonard told Optometry Today.

Doctors were also confused by how the lenses got there.

Immediately, they postponed the pending surgery.

“Because she had harboured these contact lenses in her eye for an unknown length of time, if we had operated she would have had a lot of bacteria”, Dr Morjaria said.

Dr Morjaria hopes that contact lens wearers who see the story will take a little more caution.

“In this day and age, when it is so easy to purchase contact lenses online, people become lax about having regular check ups,” she said. “Contact lenses are used all the time, but if they are not appropriately monitored we see people with serious eye infections that can cause them to lose their sight.”

The story broke online, and some users failed to believe that this could be real, with one user stating “Still wondering how? I’ve accidentally put 2 in same eye, (2 hrs sleep, don’t judge), you notice immediately. the crazy vision alone.”

We can’t believe this happened! Have you ever had a contact lenses accident?

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Comments

  • unfathomable! that is amazing! she might have dismissed it thinking that it was her cataracts and she probably felt silly when they showed her

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  • It’s hard to believe she couldn’t be aware that she hadn’t taken them out. One maybe, but that many?

    Reply

  • I just can’t understand how this can happen, shocking and a reason why I’m happy to stick with my glasses!

    Reply

  • Oh my goodness ! Can’t imagine this lady wasn’t more hindered by irritation and pain !!

    Reply

  • 27 contact lenses? Oh my!! I’ve never worn contact lenses but it looks quite absurd. How didn’t she know that? Why didn’t her eye get irritated?

    Reply

  • I don’t wear contact lenses. I find this story incredible.

    Reply

  • An amazing story,she would have realised that she had lost her contacts though!

    Reply

  • Wow! Stunned – the vision would have been awful.

    Reply

  • Wow this makes me feel a little bit more apprehensive about using my contact lenses, as the last time I had a little trouble getting one out and thought it was still in place, when what had occured was that it had fallen onto the ground on one of my attempts. I actually had a very red, irritated and slightly swollen eye for the rest of the evening. I have stuck with glasses and plan to simply get another pair rather than disposable lenses.

    Reply

  • They don’t state the age of the patient at all. Maybe the lady doesn’t have much feeling in her eye. I’m surprised she could even see clearly even before she developed cataracts.

    Reply

  • Oh my! That’s gross! I hate having my eyes touched and am paranoid about anything that gets in them (no, I don’t wear contacts for that reason, I’ll stick with glasses!)

    Reply

  • 27?!?! Wouldn’t you remember that you’d put them in?

    Reply
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