Emma Marsden, a 47-year-old mother of three from Lancashire, lost vision in her right eye and had to quit her job after parasites ate through her cornea. The infection, acanthamoeba keratitis, was caused by washing her face while wearing contact lenses after a fall into a wheelbarrow filled with dirt and water on February 28.
Infection and Diagnosis
Four days after the incident, Marsden experienced stinging and excruciating pain in her right eye. She visited her GP and was referred to hospital, where initial tests came back clear. Doctors diagnosed an ulcer and discharged her with eyedrops. However, the pain intensified, and she lost all vision in the affected eye.
On March 7, a hospital consultant diagnosed acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare eye infection caused by a parasite burrowing into the cornea. She was also found to have fusarium keratitis, a severe fungal infection, and corneal ulcers. Medics said she contracted the infection by washing her face while still wearing contact lenses, as the parasite is commonly found in tap water.
Treatment and Impact
Surgeons stitched Marsden's right eyelids shut after the parasite "ate through" her cornea. She was prescribed eye drops every hour and must sit in the dark, losing independence for three-and-a-half weeks. She may permanently lose sight in her right eye and will require a cornea transplant in a few years.
"My eye was excruciatingly painful and red. When I woke up the next morning, any time light hit my eye the pain was so severe I couldn't open my eyes," she recalled. "It's pretty heartbreaking to think I might never see out of that eye again."
Shocking photographs show her typically blue-green eye transformed into a cloudy grey. Marsden described the pain as worse than childbirth: "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."
Warning to Contact Lens Wearers
Marsden is now calling on others to take proper care of their contact lenses. "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. She still wears contact lenses in her left eye, noting that the lenses themselves are not the problem but the wearer's lack of knowledge.
"You've got to be careful with your eyes, until you've been through this or know someone you are quite blasé," she added. She is currently being seen weekly and administering six doses of eye drops every two hours.
