Man discovered plant was growing in his eye after four months of agonizing headaches

We all get headaches from time to time, and the cause is usually pretty harmless. However, one man discovered that his agonising headaches and deteriorating sight was due to a plant growing in his eye.

Maxim Sleptsov, 42, had been suffering from bouts of inflammation, double vision and four months of crippling headaches, prompting him to seek medical advice.

To the plumber's shock, doctors removed a sprouting seed from his eye in just a few minutes. But how on earth did this happen?

Well, it all began during a trip to the remote Abyysky district. His plan was to visit a friend, fish and pick berries, but he picked up something else instead.

“A branch caught me in the eye. It whipped across my face,” he said.

Maxim Sleptsov, 42, had been carrying a seed that had germinated in his eye (East2West)

He told Yakutia newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that he removed a ‘fragment of bark’ after rinsing his eye, but unbeknownst to him, a seed remained in his eye.

Maxim started to suffer with 'constant migraines,' so much so, that he almost got used to it.

The Emergency Ophthalmology Centre discovered that the sprouted seed was developing a tiny root which had 'penetrated the conjunctival tissue.' It measured at 3mm.

Surgeons were left mind-boggled, as Ophthalmologist Elizaveta Karpova, who removed the seed with an injection needle under local anaesthetic, said: “I had never encountered a case like this in my practice before."

Fortunately, the seed has left no lasting damage, and there is no further risk to the 42-year-old's eyesight.

“I was so relieved that nothing else mattered," a now headache-free Maxim said.

Maxim is now free of headaches (East2West)

Maxim has taken a positive from the scary experience, turning to religion.

"[God] made me understand that I should not point out other people's sins," he said.

Here, he referenced Matthew 7:3-5, which says: "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?"

The 42-year-old said he will now 'work on himself and put his own life right.'

There have been other cases similar to Maxim's, although not exactly the same.

In 2020, doctors found a germinating rice seed beneath a 42-year-old farmer's upper eyelid in India. It came after he had complained of blurred vision and redness for over two months, as recorded in the National Library of Medicine.