A student had to stay awake for 7 days because of parasite in the eye

Horror Scenario: Parasite eats eye of a student
After the 19-year-old British student Jessica Greaney noticed a strong redness and swelling of her eye, an unexpected nightmare began. After the doctors first diagnosed a harmless ulcer, only an operation brought the true cause of the complaints to light: A parasite had taken root in the eye of the young woman. A drop of tap water on a contact lens was enough to infect the pathogen.

Parasite had dug itself into the eyeball
Greaney's eye kept swelling. After a short time, the swelling had reached the size of a golf ball. Only when the doctors scraped off a small layer of their eyeball with a scalpel revealed the cause of the infection. A parasite had settled around the student's eye and began to eat the cornea. The disease, which is known in the jargon as Acanthamoeba keratitis, is not only very painful, it can also lead to blindness of the eye.

Parasite in the eye after a lens has been cleaned with tap water. Image: Africa Studio

But how did the parasite get in the eye? As it turned out, a single drop of water that had accidentally hit one of the Briton's contact lenses was responsible for the nightmare. The parasite is distributed worldwide and occurs in numerous waters. Anyone who keeps their contact lenses in the eye while swimming or showering has an increased risk of catching such an animal.

"If contaminated water comes in contact with a lens, this type of infection can develop. The parasite survives in the area between the lens and the eye. He eats the cornea, then digs through the eye and finally gets into the spinal cord, "explained Greaney to the news site" The Tab ".

"I got my infection only by keeping my contact lenses near my sink, in a jar of solution," "mirror.co.uk" quotes the young woman.

The student had to stay awake for seven days because of parasite
When the diagnosis was made, the nightmare continued. Because every ten minutes a drug had to be dropped into the eye of the student, she was not allowed to sleep for seven days. "I had to stay awake for a week," she continues opposite "The Tab". She still slept from exhaustion, she was awakened by a nurse. "After four days, I was a nervous wreck," says Greaney.

She said to mirror.co.uk, "The first days were pretty tough because they kept me from sleeping for four days. At first it was all right because all my friends visited me. But then Easter came and many of them went home. "

In addition, the treatment initially did not work. "The parasite was still gnawing at my eye, sleep deprivation caused my immune system to fail," the student told The Tab. When she was released from the clinic after a week, she still had to treat herself with drops 41 times a day. Then the swelling slowly went back. By now she was able to reduce the dose to 22 drops. (Ag)

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