Mum left with horror parasite eye infection after washing her face
A heartbroken mum has told how a simple mistake left her in excruciating pain and fighting for her sight after a parasite burrowed into her eye.
A mum of three has revealed how parasites ‘ate’ part of her eye after she forget to remove her contact lenses before washing her face.
Emma Marsden had to have her eye sewn shut after the severe infection left her in excruciating pain that she says was as bad as childbirth.
She now faces a nervous wait to find out if her sight will ever be the same again.
Striking photos show how the former personal trainer’s usually blue-green eye was turned a hazy grey as the agonising infection took hold.
Emma, 47, who has had to quit her job as a result, has now issued a warning to other contact lens wearers to be aware of the risks.
She was mucking out horses in February when she slipped and fell headfirst into a wheelbarrow full of dirt and water.
She washed her face and hands at the time, but didn't remove her contact lenses until later that evening.
Within a few days her right eye began to sting and then, as the pain worsened, she lost her vision.
Doctors diagnosed acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare eye infection caused by a parasite commonly found in tap water burrowing into her cornea. Emma was also found to have fusarium keratitis, a severe fungal infection of the cornea, and corneal ulcers.
Her eyelids were sewn together to promote healing and she will eventually need a cornea transplant. Emma, from Whalley, Lancashire, said: "It's pretty heartbreaking to think I might never see out of that eye again.
“It's excruciatingly painful and everything just stops, your life stops. I've had three kids and giving birth is a dream compared to this pain. "It eats through your eye and cornea and all your nerves. The speed it ate at the doctors couldn't believe it.”
Because of the parasite, Emma faces waiting years before she can have a cornea transplant. She added: "If I'm still two years down the line and have no life and can't do anything I will quite happily have my eye taken out.
"You have no choice but to get on with it, you can't sit there wallowing in self-pity.” Emma has warned other contact lens users to take care in order to avoid damaging their eyesight.
“You don't think about the knock-on effect just by not taking your contact lenses out in the shower or to swim in, or to wash your face in my case,” she said. "You've got to be careful with your eyes, until you've been through this or know someone you are quite blasé."