A 21-year-old man has shared how he lost an eye after taking a 40-minute time while wearing his contact lenses.
Michael Krumholz from Florida explained that he took a quick nap at his part-time job and when he woke up, his left vision was distorted and his eye was red.
He didn’t think it would be serious and simply removed his contact lenses. But only days later, he started losing sight out of his left eye and he began to feel agonizing pain.
Krumholz was then diagnosed with a flesh-eating bacterial infection called acanthamoeba keratitis, which can cause significant and permanent vision loss.
He was told by doctors that he may only get 10 percent of his vision back after a corneal transplant.
In an interview with Daily Mail, he said: “I am 21 years old and have been trying to find a sports management type job in the industry, but it seems impossible to do that.
“Nowadays it is no work, no social life, really, social media gets you through the day.”
After the incident, the sports management student also developed photosensitivity, which means it is painful for him to be exposed to direct sunlight.
Before he contracted the infection, he had been wearing Acuvue Oasys every day for two to three years.
Speaking to the Daily Star, he said: “My contacts just felt really irritated like they were floating in my eye (after I woke up from the nap).
“So I took them out and there was nothing wrong. The next morning I woke up, I went to play baseball, and I had to take my contacts out like right away.”
He continued: “I told my parents, ‘I gotta go to the eye doctor, something isn’t right.’ I thought I had pink eye or something and he (the doctor) took a picture of the back of my eye after dilating – and he was like something is not right.”
Around 80 percent of the cases are found in people who wear contact lenses. The bacteria are found in soil, lakes, oceans and streams but they can also get into heating, tap water, ventilation and air conditioning units.
When they enter the eyes through micro-tears and scrapes, they can cause an infection.
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