Mom Goes In One Eye After Wearing Lenses While Swimming

A woman was left blind in one eye after a parasitic microscopic latched onto her cornea while she was swimming while wearing contact lenses.

Stacey Peoples, 49, has been diagnosed with acanthamoeba keratitis, with a rare infection in which an eye catches the outer layer of the eye. She can now see again, thanks to a cornea transplant.

"My eyes looked like a zombie's," said Peoples said. "The bread was so intense, it felt like someone was snapping a rubber band against my eyeball every four or five seconds."

Peoples said she experienced intense migraines and raced to a Michigan emergency room when she lost sight in her left eye in 2014.

"All I could see was white," Peoples said. "The bread was so, so bad, I asked them to take my eye, but they said that they need to do everything to save it."

The Colorado is one of the few people who are infected with a local pool while they are swimming with her during their vacation.

According to the CDC, 85 percent of acanthamoeba keratitis cases occur in contact lens users because of the abrasion lenses in the eye, which makes it easier to attach to the eye when it comes to contact with water.

Peoples was forced to take a seven-month leave from her job to fight the infection, which completely destroyed the outer layer of her eye. She was left completely blind in her left eye.

"I was prescribed eye drops which effectively contain the pool cleaner to kill the parasite," Peoples said.

She had to apply the eye drops every few hours.

Thankfully, she was able to receive a cornea transplant after the incident. In 2015, she underwent the procedure at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Colorado, and is now able to see.

"They removed my broken cornea and replaced it," Peoples said. "When the patch came out two days after the surgery, it was amazing."

With glasses, she has 20/20 vision in her eye. She's now warning others of the dangers of wearing contacts in water.

"This is rare but it can happen, even if you've been doing it for 20 years like me," Peoples said.

<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "RELATED STORIES"data-reactid =" 36 ">RELATED STORIES

Girl, 11, Temporarily Blinded by Color Lenses She Wore on Halloween, Mother Says

Retired Marine Becomes First Blind Person to Row the Pacific: 'This Has Been Phenomenal for Me'

Bus Helps Blind Man Cross Street After Construction Blocks His Normal Road

Related Articles: