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A woman has completely lost her vision on one eye after making one small and simple mistake; now, she’s warning people everywhere not to follow in her footsteps. The issue originated all from her using her contact lenses, something that hundreds of thousands of people use on a daily basis.
Kyra Smith, a 25-year-old woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, had been an avid user of contact lenses for six years prior to the fateful day that changed her life. She was used to reusing old lenses and washing them each night in contact solution, but this time something went horribly wrong.
After only six weeks of “back and forth” with eye specialists, Kyra contracted the rare infection acanthamoeba keratitis – an infection that halted her eyesight and left her blind in one eye.
This particular parasitic infection is believed to be caused by rinsing contact lens cases with tap water instead of sterile saline solution or disinfectant. The bacteria introduced into the lenses eventually led to Smith’s diagnosis of acanthamoeba keratitis.
While she initially experienced a different sensation when putting on her contacts that morning, what started out as unnoticeable quickly became extremely problematic.
Smith’s light sensitivity became so bad that she couldn’t even leave her house or look at her phone; it began traveling to her other eye leaving both eyes in excruciating pain.
In only two weeks after noticing the odd feeling while wearing contacts, Smith had completely lost all sight in one eye due to the parasite eating away at her cornea. To make matters worse, when she underwent a cornea replacement surgery it proved ineffective since the infection still remained in place afterwards.
Nowadays Kyra continues undergoing treatment as she seeks to rid herself completely of the parasite – hopeful that another cornea replacement surgery can restore vision back into her damaged eye once again.
Understandably so, she has been left traumatized by these events – scared and emotional about what this means for her vision going forward. This story serves as a reminder of how dangerous tap water can be for contact lenses users who don’t adequately clean their equipment beforehand.
