Colored contact lenses are very trendy. For an evening with friends, for an outing with girlfriends or (simply) to change your look for a few hours, they are hyper-effective. Yes, but not always without health risks …
Émilie Turcotte, 11, experienced it. To go on a candy hunt with her friends, the young girl gets her mom’s permission to wear colored contact lenses to complete her Halloween costume.
“She wore her lenses for 4 hours at school, then took them out for dinner and put them back to go look for candy with her friends,” her mom told the Montreal Journal.
The next morning, nightmare: Emilie wakes up with red, burning, watery, bloodshot eyes. She hardly sees anything. “We took her to the hospital and the doctors found damage to the cornea. “
“The cornea is a fragile organ, sensitive to bacterial infections”
Asked by The Sun, ophthalmologist Dr. Badrul Hussain reacts: “every year we see patients (and sometimes children under 16) who have developed eye problems due to contact lenses. “
“These are medical devices that must be used with care: do not let them soak in tap water, do not exchange them with friends, do not wear them at night, and do not exceed their expiry dates. .. The cornea is a fragile organ which is particularly sensitive to bacterial infections. “
After 4 days of blindness, Émilie has finally regained her sight: she will however have to wear sunglasses for 1 month.
Read also :
A contact lens that treats lesions in the eye
A lens got stuck under his eyelid for 28 years
Rare eye infection outbreak with contact lenses