It would be nice if we all had 20/20 vision, but this just isn't the case. Indeed, three out of four people in the U.S. need vision correction. This means that the majority of us have to deal with either contacts or glasses, or get laser surgery.
An opthamologist in California shared a video of the removal of nearly two dozen contact lenses from a patient's eye. We'll show it to you, but it's not for the faint of heart.
Putting aside laser surgery, the options for vision correction generally boil down to glasses or contacts. Both use tried-and-true technology that's been around forever. Glasses are lower maintenance, but contacts free the wearer from having a set of glasses on their face.
There are super-disposable contacts that are only meant to be worn once, and there are traditional contacts that can be re-worn. But ultimately, all contacts are disposable. Any contacts wearer will tell you that it's necessary to always have a few in reserve.
We'll show you some stills and then the full video, but it's kind of gross — so consider yourself warned.
Dr. Katerina Kurteeva, an opthamologist with California Eye Associates in Newport Beach, showed the video of a patient in her mid-70s who thought she had something in her eye.
Dr. Kurteeva had a look at the patient's eye and quickly discovered something. It's the greenish thing that's just barely visible at the top of the woman's eye in the still above. As you've probably guessed, it's a whole bunch of contact lenses.
Here comes the part that's gross to watch: the opthamologist uses a swab to flick out the contact lenses that had accumulated in the woman's eye. You can count along if you want, but the final tally is 23 — 23! — contacts in her eye.
Commenters wondered how this could happen. It's one thing to sleep in your contacts — although any eye doctor will recommend against it — but to not remove the existing contact before putting a new one in is just bizarre.
To answer the question of how this could happen, one only needs to look at the patient's age. It's entirely plausible that her memory isn't good enough to remember to take the old contact out before putting the new one in, or to mistake the discomfort for a "normal" part of aging.
Here's the video. You know exactly what happens in it, so if you choose to click on that play button, it's entirely on you. In the end, it's good that the woman's problem was addressed — although she should probably switch to glasses from here on out.
I do, and this horrifying video makes me want to just wear glasses full-time. Do you have any opthamology-related horror stories? If so, share them in the comments — and let us know what you think of this bizarre story.
