An ophthalmologist in the UK found 27 contact lenses lost in the eyes of a 67-year-old woman who was not aware of that situation because she thought that the discomfort she was feeling was due to her advanced age and dry eyes
This incredible story took place in the Solihull Hospital. Dr. Rupal Morjaria was performing what should’ve been a routinary cataract surgery to the woman, but instead, he discovered a bluish mass in her eyes that were all of the lenses that had gotten stuck together in different parts of the eye.
“It was such a large mass. All the 17 contact lenses were stuck together. 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.” Told Dr. Rupal.
Other doctors could not believe having so many lenses in the eyes was possible
This unusual case actually happened last November, but it was not made public until now. Clinicians that were involved couldn’t believe that the women had so many lenses lost in her eyes. Dr. Morjaria said it was like nothing she had ever seen before.
When they were performing the surgery and saw the lenses, they preferred to remove them all and stop there, postponing the cataract procedure because of a great risk of infection. According to Dr. Morjaria, given the fact that they didn’t know for how long had the lenses been there, if they continued the surgery then the patient would have had a lot of bacteria in her conjunctiva, increasing the risks of endophthalmitis, which is a terrible inflammation of the eye. The surgery team was integrated by doctors with more than 20 years of experience.
Two weeks later, the patient came back and told Dr. Morjaria that she felt a lot better.
“She was quite shocked. When she was seen two weeks after I removed the lenses she said her eyes felt a lot more comfortable.” Said Dr. Rupal Morjaria
It important to take out the lenses and let the eyes breathe.
Dr. Morjaria said that to prevent similar situations, people have to take their lenses off and let the eyes breathe. The patient told her that she has been using contact lenses for the past 35 years. However, the 67-year-old woman acknowledged that she didn’t pay much attention to the health of her eye, and she didn’t take care of the lenses. As well, she said that she didn’t attend to regular optometrist appointments. She didn’t report symptoms that could be linked to the lost lenses. She did feel discomfort but thought it was part of her cataracts and due to her age.
Dr. Morjaria pointed out that people use lenses all day long and they don’t monitor their deterioration. Stray lenses can turn into severe infections, and people might lose their sight because of it. She also highlighted that since nowadays people can easily buy lenses online, they became lazy about having regular checkups.
Source: Mirror