In California, an ophthalmologist removed 23 contact lenses from the eye of a septuagenarian

An American patient, who went to the doctor for discomfort in her eye, had the surprise of her life during this consultation.

Credit: Katerina Kurteeva / Facebook

Indeed, the ophthalmologist quickly understood why the 70-year-old lady was complaining of particularly blurred vision. The specialist removed 23 disposable contact lenses from the patient's eye. The latter had not been able to go to this appointment for months because of the Covid-19 and she noticed that her sight was deteriorating little by little. Worried, she ended up making a new appointment to get a professional opinion.

“To this day, she herself does not understand how it happened. She's still baffled by it all.' Dr. Katerina Kurteeva, the Newport Beach-based ophthalmologist who performed the procedure, told a local television station. Photographs and video of a waterfall lentils The contact swatches removed from a woman's eye have since gone viral on Katerina Kurteeva's Instagram page, prompting a flurry of horrified comments.

Credit: Katerina Kurteeva/Facebook

The patient, who has since been interviewed by a journalist from the Today Show, said she wanted to avoid regular visits to her ophthalmologist because she was afraid of being infected with Covid-19. When she finally showed up at the ophthalmology office in early September, she felt something strange in her right eye.

After removing a few contact lenses from her eye and spotting more, Katerina Kurteeva asked her assistant to count how many there were in total: “I thought this might be the time for me to be in the Guinness Book of World Records” she confided. However, finding a patient with 23 disposable contact lenses in one eye is not a record, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. In 2017, doctors preparing a 67-year-old British woman for cataract surgery found 27 contact lenses in her eye.

Credit: Katerina Kurteeva/Facebook

A cas pas yes rare

Dr. Thomas Steinemann, spokesperson for the academy, described this situation as « pas si rare » , and explained, as a prevention, that patients with contact lenses in their eyes could feel a burning sensation ' like a eye sec ».

But decades of wearing contact lenses can desensitize the eyes, making it less likely to feel discomfort even if they get stuck in the eye. And with age, “the upper eyelid socket becomes very deep. In her case, all those contact lenses could have been hiding like a stack of pancakes deep inside, in the less sensitive part of the eye,” added Katerina Kurteeva.

In her misfortune, the septuagenarian was finally very lucky to get out of it without sequelae.