A 42-year-old Scottish woman visited her eye doctor for pain and swelling in her left eyelid. The doctor discovered a lens under his eyelid. The most incredible thing is that the woman had lived with it for 28 years!
A 42-year-old Scottish woman has spent 28 years with a lens stuck under her left eyelid. This incredible story is told in the BMJ Case Reports.
Embarrassed by some pain and swelling of the eyelid, she goes to an ophthalmologist who first thinks of a cyst. During the operation, he uncovers the lens included in the eyelid.
A lens lost since she was 14
‘Lost’ contact lens removed from woman’s eyelid after 28 years https://t.co/VODUWRcyO2 pic.twitter.com/z4bUSZeLwX
– BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) August 17, 2018
The woman had not worn contact lenses since she was 14 years old. She recalled that at that age, she had received a shuttlecock in the eye during a game of badminton. She had not found her lens by then and thought it had fallen. In fact, her lens became embedded in the tissue of her upper left eyelid. Since the tissues around the eye are insensitive, the patient may not have felt anything for all these years.
27 lenses stuck under the eyelid
Doctors find 27 contact lenses in woman’s eye. Have you ever had a hard timing “finding” a lens you put in? (CNN) https://t.co/5nMIdjA89t pic.twitter.com/GxST8hpbNx
– WPDE ABC15 (@ wpdeabc15) July 18, 2017
In July 2017, an equally unlikely story had happened to an Englishwoman. The 67-year-old was about to have cataract surgery when doctors detected a “bluish lump” in her eye. These were 27 agglutinated lenses. The patient had not reported any particular symptoms, but after removing the forgotten lenses she confessed that she thought she had age-related dry eye. She had been wearing contact lenses for 35 years.
These two cases remind us of the need for lens wearers to have serious ophthalmologic follow-up. At the Rennes University Hospital last April, doctors warned of the need to be rigorous when wearing lenses. Poor hygiene or improper use can cause serious infections or damage the cornea. About 6% of French people wore contact lenses in 2015.
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