A UK woman’s innocent mistake with her contact lenses led to a horrific outcome: a hole in her right cornea caused by a parasite that could leave her permanently blind. Last week, 47-year-old Emma Marsden recounted the tragic turn of events in an interview with The Sun. Marsden contracted a rare amoeba infection, likely from washing her face without taking off her contacts. Though Marsden is now receiving regular treatment in hopes of healing her torn open cornea, there’s still a good chance that she will need a corneal transplant down the road. “I’ve had three kids and giving birth is a dream compared to this pain,” Marsden told the Sun. “It eats through your eye and cornea and all your nerves. The speed it ate at the doctors couldn’t believe it.” Rare but horrific According to Marsden, the trouble started after she fell headfirst into a wheelbarrow filled with dirt and water while cleaning out horse stables. Covered in mud, she scrambled to wash herself and her face with tap water but neglected to remove her contacts until later that evening.
Four days later, she began losing vision and experiencing “excruciating pain” in her right eye. She visited her primary care doctor, who soon referred her to the hospital. There, doctors diagnosed her with acanthamoeba keratitis (keratitis pertaining to the cornea), likely caught from her tap water rinse. She also had a separate fungal infection of the cornea, probably caught from the accidental mud bath she had taken.
