Contact lenses: – Kyra went blind:

Kyra Smith (25) from Alberquerque in the state of New Mexico in the United States probably went blind after making a mistake with her contact lenses.

The 25-year-old has been using monthly contact lenses for the past six years, according to Kennedy News and Media. Usually, he took off his lenses every night, rinsed them with a contact lens solution, and stored them in a lens box until the next day.

The error

But at some point in March 2021, he made a mistake and rinsed his lenses with plain tap water.

She didn’t know that four weeks later she would go blind.

– I had put on my lenses and felt it explode in my left eye. But I didn’t think about anything anymore, because she didn’t hurt, she tells the news agency.

He says he took out the lenses normally that night and found that the eye appears red. He thought it was due to a common irritation.

When he woke up the next day, his eyes had turned even redder. Later in the evening, her eye started to hurt, she says.

– Then I got worried. The next day I saw an ophthalmologist. He couldn’t give me a clear answer as to what was wrong with me, but he thought it might be an infection and he gave me some eye drops.

– What the hell is that?

Kyra went home, hoping the eye drops would help. But she says she was unable to take them due to the pain.

– I was extremely sensitive to light and my eyes always hurt. Then I went back to the ophthalmologist. When he looked at my eye under the microscope, he exclaimed, “What the hell is that?” He says, emphasizing:

– Those were exactly the words he used. She really scared me.

Over the next six weeks, there was a lot of back and forth, says the 25-year-old.

– Then things got really bad, Kyra says, and elaborates:

– I started losing my sight in April, and then it went very quickly. It started out as a fog out of the corner of my eye, but then it spread. Within two weeks my vision had completely disappeared.

– Especially serious

Now he has decided to see another specialist.

– He said that I had acanthamoeba keratitis and that it was a particularly serious case because I had been without treatment for six weeks. I was scared and very emotional because I didn’t know what it would mean to me and my vision.

Doctors believe Kyra contracted the parasite when she rinsed her lenses with tap water instead of contact lens solution.

According to Acanthamoeba, The Institute of Public Health the free-living amoeba Acanthamoeba, which can cause skin and eye diseases (keratitis). Such infections also occurred in Norway.

– Amoeba occurs widely in nature in water and soil. Keratitis is mainly seen in users of all types of contact lenses. The first case of acanthamoeba keratitis was reported in Norway in 1991, in a contact lens wearer, writes FHI.

They also write that eye infections caused by amoeba can be very serious and lead to vision loss and the need for a cornea transplant.

– Poor hand hygiene

According to a group of researchers, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Acanthamoeba keratitis is a largely preventable disease.

However, when the study took place in 2016, an amoeba outbreak was observed.

– Better hygiene of the lenses and hands, ensuring that the lenses do not come into contact with water and the use of effective contact lenses – or daily lenses that are thrown away after use, can prevent the onset of acanthamoeba keratitis, they write.

Researchers mention risk factors such as poor contact lens hygiene, poor hand hygiene, and wearing contact lenses while swimming or bathing.

Back to top

Doctors subjected Kyra to intensive medical treatment with antibiotics, antiviral drugs, antifungal drugs, steroids, and eye drops.

In April last year, a year had passed since the first appearance of the dramatic infection and the doctors thought they had finally succeeded in killing the parasite.

In an attempt to save her sight, they transplanted a new cornea. But it would turn out that the parasite hadn’t ended up with Kyra at all.

– Doctors feared my eye was infected again. She reacted to the medicine, so it means the parasite is still active, she says.

The new cornea was attacked, which reportedly caused Kyra’s body to reject it. She will now go back to where she started, without sight.

The 25-year-old still hopes to recover from the parasitic infection so she can have a new cornea transplant.

– Now things have to stabilize before I can get another transplant. They can’t say anything about when this might happen, it depends on when the parasite dies.

Warns other lens wearers

Kyra is still being followed weekly by the ophthalmologist and is still taking medications that hopefully will fight the parasite.

If Kyra regains her sight, she will switch to daily lenses, thus reducing the risk of another infection.

The 25-year-old swears she will never rinse her lenses in tap water again and has a clear warning for other lens wearers:

– It wasn’t something I expected to happen. I knew it wasn’t cool to shower or swim with them, but I didn’t realize that rinsing the lenses in tap water could cause something like this.

Now advise others to listen to their eye doctor and never be sloppy with lenses.

– There is so much that can happen – and it can happen quickly. It is important to understand the risk. Wearing contact lenses is a privilege and you need to take care of your eyes.

– Irreparable damage

The lens shop Linserpånett.no writes in an informative article on his pages that wearing contact lenses increases the risk of severe keratitis. They write that acanthamoeba are found everywhere, in the air, soil and water.

– In many places they are found in drinking water and in swimming pools and hot tubs they can occur in large quantities. Most of us therefore come into frequent contact with these amoebas without becoming infected, they write.

In addition, they warn that they do not have such amoebas in the eye.

– If you put them on your eyes, and especially if they remain between the cornea and the contact lens, they can cause a severe form of corneal inflammation with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Amoebas feed on microorganisms and organic matter.

– If they take hold in a wound or tear, they can detach on the cells of the cornea and cause irreversible damage, the website writes.