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.”
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.
Acanthamoeba is a group of free-living amoeba commonly found in water, dirt, and soil. While usually harmless to people, if the amoeba reach the eye, they can make a cozy home inside the cornea, the transparent and protective covering of the eye. And if not treated promptly, the infection can cause severe pain and permanently damaged corneas.
Acanthamoeba keratitis can happen to anyone, but cases predominantly affect people who wear contacts. Contacts can act as a sponge, trapping amoeba up against the corneas; they can also cause micro-tears in the cornea, making it easier for the amoeba to establish an infection. Though this infection is rare, with only 1,500 estimated cases in the U.S. annually, up to 93% of cases involve contact lens wearers.
Though Marsden began treatment in February 2026, her eye’s symptoms continued to worsen. And eventually, doctors discovered that the parasite had caused a perforation, or tear, in her cornea. Doctors temporarily sewed her right eyelid closed to help the cornea heal, leaving Marsden largely confined to her home.
“I was in a dark room for three-and-a-half weeks and I couldn’t go outside or do anything. I had all the lights off in the house and everyone had to eat in the dark,” she said. “You can’t go anywhere or do anything. The last three weeks are the only times I’ve been able to go outside and go for walks.”
Marsden is now receiving weekly monitoring at the hospital but still has to take eye drops every two hours. And it’s likely that she will require a donor cornea to have significant improvement in her right eye. Unfortunately, it’s a procedure that can’t take place for years due to the infection, according to Marsden.
Whatever may happen, Marsden hopes that others can learn from her experience and remember the importance of good hygiene with their contacts.
“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.
Experts recommend that people remove lenses before water activities such as showering or swimming; they should also wash their hands thoroughly before handling lenses and clean their contact lens case with solution; and they should avoid rinsing or storing contacts in water. Not wearing them for too long (daily contacts should be worn for no more than 16 hours and you shouldn’t sleep with them on) can also reduce the risk of injury or infection.
Source: Gizmodo