He went to a 40-minute emergency room and woke up blind in one eye. What happened there? - Voila! Health

Contact lenses (Photo: ShutterStock)

A Florida man went blind in one eye after sleeping with his contact lenses on.

But the thin plastic lenses were only partially responsible for his condition.

Mike Krumholz, 21, recently shared his story with the Daily Star, saying he slept for 40 minutes on December 19 last year without removing his contact lenses.

After the short sleep he woke up with his right eye irritated and inflamed.

However, he thought there was nothing wrong with it, and eventually it would subside.

Even after removing the contact lenses from his eyes, he realized that the irritation did not go away.

The next day, he went to see an optometrist.

But he was misdiagnosed with herpes simplex virus 1.

Krumholz has been fitting contact lenses for years.

And it wasn't the first time he'd forgotten to take them out before falling asleep, so the odd eye infection didn't seem alarming to him.

However, his condition worsened.

For about a month he had to deal with continuous irritation and blurred vision.

Only then did he decide to go to the hospital.

Screamed in pain

Mike was eventually diagnosed with Acanthamoeba keratitis after a series of tests.

The rare infection is caused by a single-celled amoeba commonly found in water, soil and air, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The condition affects the clear outer covering of the eye called the cornea and causes a number of symptoms, including pain, redness, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, excessive tears and a feeling that something is in the eye, the CDC explained, adding that the infection mainly affects contact lens components.

Contact lenses provide a good place for the parasite to thrive when stored and handled improperly.

Poor disinfection and contact with contaminated water while swimming or showering can lead to infection.

In Krumholtz's case, he had to undergo a procedure called photodynamic therapy where doctors had to put the white of his eye on the pupil so he could fight off the parasite.

But it seems that it is already too late to save his sight in the affected eye.

According to him, he only sees "black and gray" in his right eye.

"I couldn't explain one such pain in my life. It's a constant pain. I'm quite proud of my pain tolerance, but I screamed in pain. I wish I was exaggerating," he said.

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