A 21-year-old man lost vision in one of his eyes after he took a nap while still wearing his contact lenses, and a flesh-eating parasite began feeding away on his eye.
Mike Krumholz from Florida had been wearing contact lenses for seven years prior to the incident, so was aware of the negative impacts they can have such as the occasional eye infection.
However, after the 21-year-old had a busy day at his part-time job looking after children, he decided to close his eyes for 40 minutes with his lenses still in, as reported by the Daily Star.
During this brief nap, a flesh-eating parasite known as acanthamoeba keratitis began feeding away at his right eye, leaving Mike without vision on that side.
It took medical professionals over a month to diagnose Mike, but he noticed something wasn't right immediately. He carried on his day as normal after waking from his nap, but his condition quickly deteriorated.
He was wrongly diagnosed with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), for which he was prescribed antibiotics which only sped up the rate that the parasite took hold of his eye.
Krumholz took the nap on December 19 and it wasn't until January 21 that he received the correct diagnosis.
The 21-year-old sat down with the Daily Star where he revealed the struggles he has faced since the parasite first took his vision and how over 50 days later he is unable to work or attend university.
"In my bedroom, I have the hurricane shutters up and all the lights blacked out," Mike told the Star. "It goes from doing all these activities with these kids, playing around and teaching them something to I couldn’t even watch the Super Bowl on my phone - it’s rough."
He revealed that his family has been very supportive in his time of need and that his mother has taken time off work to be at home with him although he cannot sit in the living room with her.
"It’s very very weird not being able to see people. You don’t want people to feel bad for you but at the same time you want to be living like a 21-year-old who is in college," Mike continued.
He went on to reveal how much pain he is in, stating that the pain radiates further than just the eye itself and although he claims to have a high pain tolerance, admits that he has screamed in pain a number of times.
A GoFundMe page was set up to support Mike, and it further reveals that he has since undergone two surgeries which included a corneal transplant.
During the post, he shared a warning to others who wear contact lenses: "Please do not sleep in them, do not swim in them, and what I was never warned about, DO NOT SHOWER in them."
As per the CDC, just one to 33 cases per million contact lens wearers in "developed countries" will be diagnosed with acanthamoeba keratitis.
We wish Mike all the best on his recovery journey.
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