The next time you think about going to sleep before taking out your contact lenses, remember Chad Groeschen. The Cincinnati resident didn’t remove his extended use contacts for nearly a week. Halfway through one day, his eyes started itching and he finally took them out, thinking it might be allergies. “The next morning,” he said, “the vision in my left eye started to turn cloudy.”
Groeschen developed a “corneal ulcer infected with Pseudomonas bacteria.”
While the contact lens is fairly porous and oxygen can reach the cornea, it still acts as a barrier. When a person sleeps in a pair of contacts, their eyelid acts as a second barrier, according to [American Academy of Ophthalmology spokesman, Thomas] Steinemann.
“If patients ask the safest thing to do I would say take the lens out [when sleeping,]” Steinemann said. “When you have the plastic contact lens over the eye, you are depriving the eye of oxygen but also increasing the risk of germs attacking the cornea.” (Via)
He’s now blind in one eye. This photo is not for the faint of heart.
Seriously.
This is your last chance. May God have mercy on your soul (and eyes).
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That is the best piece of advertising for glasses ever.
(Via USA Today)
