Woman went blind after making 'stupid' mistake while using contact lenses
Topics: News, Health, Mental Health, UK News
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: SWNS
Topics: News, Health, Mental Health, UK News
A woman's mistake with her contact lenses left her in 'unbearable pain' she described as 'worse than giving birth'.
Nurse Katie Carrington, 36, was first told that she needed to wear glasses when she was 16 years old.
When she was 17, Katie, from Essex in the UK, began using daily disposable lenses as an alternative to having to wear glasses.
Meany people prefer contact lenses, as glasses can be lost or broken - particularly if you are doing something active.
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But while there are contact lenses you can reuse, disposable lenses like the ones Katie opted for are only meant to be used just once.
And unfortunately, Katie recalled how a 'stupid' mistake with her lenses led to her facing serious health consequences for her vision, and doctors didn't know if she would recover fully.
As a teenager, Katie recalled that she got into the bad habit of not removing her contacts after a night out.
Over time, this became worse and worse until Katie was wearing her contacts for days and even weeks at a time.
“I was really stupid - I misused my contact lenses," she said.
“At first, I would go to parties and not take them out at night, but then I started wearing them for excessive amounts of time.
“I’d be terrible sometimes and wear them for a week or two at a time, I’d wait until my eyes were really dry and then take them out and change them."
Explaining her reasoning, Katie said: “I did it out of convenience. My eyesight is pretty bad, so I just hated the fact that I’d wake up and couldn’t see.
“Looking back now, I don’t know why I did it."
This continued until one day in August 2025, Katie woke up to feel her eyes 'pounding and streaming', before waking up the next day in 'unbearable pain'.
Mom-of-four Katie said: "It was worse than giving birth. I couldn’t see at all in my right eye. Doctors didn’t know if my sight would come back."
Katie was devastated by the prognosis, saying: “I was so depressed, thinking I wouldn’t get to see my kids growing up.
“Even though it was just one eye, I felt like all my independence had been taken away from me.
“Daily tasks became so hard. When I was making a bottle for my baby I would spill it everywhere, and I had to focus so hard to cut things up in the kitchen."
Fortunately, Katie's vision did return in her right eye, but now she has sworn off wearing contacts for the rest of her life.
“It was my fault and I take full accountability, but I didn’t know the risks associated with them," she said.
She also warned people to be aware of how to properly use contact lenses, saying: “I urge contact lens wearers to read up about the risks. I thought it would never happen to me, because I got away with it for so long, but now I’m focused on looking after myself.”