I took a quick nap — and a flesh-eating parasite left me blind in one eye
This quick nap turned into a waking nightmare.
A Florida man has ended up blind in one eye after contracting a rare inflection from a flesh-eating parasite during a brief snooze.
Mike Krumholz, 21, took a 40-minute nap with his contact lenses in on Dec. 19 of last year and woke up with his right eye irritated and inflamed.
“My contacts just felt really irritated like they were floating in my eye,” the college student told The Daily Star. “I took them out and there was nothing wrong,”
However, the irritation failed to subside and Krumholz visited an optometrist the following day, where he was misdiagnosed with the herpes simplex 1 virus.
After a month of continuing irritation and blurred vision, the Floridian went to a hospital, where he was eventually diagnosed with acanthamoeba keratitis following a series of tests.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the serious infection “is caused by a microscopic, free-living ameba — single-celled living organisms that are usually found in bodies of water, soil, and air.”
People who wear contact lenses are at a higher risk of contracting the infection, particularly if they fail to store and handle their lenses properly.
Krumholz underwent a procedure called photodynamic therapy, where the white of the eye was put over the pupil in order to fight off the parasite.
The student’s irritation has turned into extreme pain and he has been left without proper vision in his right eye, describing what he sees as “black and grey flashing” like the static of a TV.
“I could not explain one pain like this in my life,” he harrowingly stated. “It’s like a constant shock, it’s a constant pain. I’m pretty proud of my pain tolerance but I have been screaming in pain. I wish that I was exaggerating.”
Krumholz is not currently eligible for an eye transplant because of his age and current health.
“My eye is too inflamed to take human tissue from another eye, my body wouldn’t accept it right now and I would need another transplant so it would just keep getting worse and worse,” he explained. “But the transplant, if I’m ever eligible for it, it will hopefully give me at least 50% or something so that I’ll be able to see a little bit.”
Per the CDC, acanthamoeba keratitis can result in permanent visual impairment or blindness. Symptoms include eye pain, eye redness, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, sensation of something in the eye and excessive tearing.
Krumholz is unable to continue studying while he is receiving ongoing treatment to lessen the severity of the infection.
He is now taking to TikTok to warn anyone who wears contacts not to sleep in them — and for people to be aware of their eye health.
“There’s a lot of people that wear contacts right now who have said ‘Hey I’ve just slept in my contacts, should I go to the doctor?” he said, admitting he used to sleep in them all the time.
“I’m trying to get the word out there that is issues with it,” he continued. “It’s not ok now.”
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