Woman loses eye after it became infected while she was having a shower

After wearing contact lenses while taking a shower, a grandmother lost her eye.

Marie Mason, 54, suffered an infection in her left eye from a microscopic amoeba in tap water. It got in between her cornea and contact lens.

In 2015, she felt something stuck in her eye and noticed that something was wrong.

After her vision began to deteriorate, she went to the opticians. They immediately rushed her to the hospital.

Marie was then informed that she had Acanthamoeba Keratitis, a type of bacteria, in her eye. This was what was causing her problems.

Acanthamoeba Keratitis, a rare infection caused by a microscopic free-living organism that can cause permanent vision impairment or blindness, is very rare.

Marie wore 30 day contact lenses, which mean she showered in them and as the infection can be found in tap water, it is believed that’s how her eye became infected.

The infection then multiplied, and over time it feasted on Marie’s cornea and her vision began to deteriorate.

After five years of trying numerous types of medication, a series of unsuccessfuloperations including three cornea transplants, her eye had to be removed.

Marie, who is from Sapcote in Leicteserhsire, said: “I had to stop work, because at the time I worked in a kitchen in a school, and I was having to put eye drops in every half an hour so it just wasn’t going to work because it’s so painful.

“I also had to go to the hospital two to three times a week, and sometimes even more. I was also in eye casualty a lot because something would flare up, so with all the times I had to go into hospital, I couldn’t have gone to work because it wouldn’t have been worth it anyway.

“There was just lots of hospital visits, lots of eye drops, lots of operations and procedures and lots of pain.”

Marie now calls for better warnings about contact lens packs to avoid contamination.

She believes that they warn users not to wear lenses in the bath or touch them after washing their hands.

She said: “I don’t want anything to think that I’m asking people to not wear contact lenses because I’m not asking that at all.

“Wear contact lenses, that’s absolutely fine, but you’ve just got to be careful - it’s the water thing more than anything.

“I would just like the manufactures to put more warnings on the packaging about water and contact lenses. I just don’t want anyone else to go through it really.”

Almost two years after having her eye removed, Marie’s life is almost back to normal.

She is now back at work as an admin assistant for her husband Jonathan, who is 50, and volunteers with her church.

However, she does ‘struggle sometimes’ with simple, everyday tasks such as walking down the street.

The grandmother-of-one said: “My life is alright now, I haven’t gone back to work to the place I left, but I now work for my husband. I’m also heavily involved with the church where I do a lot of voluntary work so my life has changed, but it’s a nice change, and it’s different.

“The only thing I’ve not gone back to is driving, I stopped driving quite early on in the journey because I wasn’t comfortable with it, and I haven’t got the confidence to go back to it, so that’s the main thing that’s changed for me.

“I do struggle sometimes because my vision on my left side is rubbish, well it’s not there. It’s quite hard walking down the street when you’ve got people whizzing by you, and it makes you jump a bit because you don’t expect it.”