“I am not able to spend quality time with my granddaughter”

US clinicians have described the case of a 54-year-old patient who developed sight-threatening fungal keratitis after scratching her cornea removing a contact lens and fake eye lashes.

Writing in BMJ Case Reports, they highlight that the woman received a bandage contact lens immediately after the injury alongside ciprofloxacin 0.3% and erythromycin 0.5% solutions.

A month after the injury she presented at hospital with a progressive loss of visual acuity and pain in her right eye.

Cultures from a sample taken from the right eye grew Paecilomyces keratitis.

The patient was treated with topical and systemic antifungal agents. She received an intrastromal injection of amphotericin B and a large conjunctival flap covering 75% of the right eye corneal ulcer.

Recounting her experience, the patient shared that that pain in her eye was her biggest concern.

“I am not able to spend quality time with my granddaughter,” she said.

Eight months following diagnosis the patient underwent a corneal transplant in her right eye.

Her visual acuity in the affected eye was limited to counting fingers, with the clinicians hopeful for further improvement.