My eye had to be sewn shut after a parasite ate my cornea the crucial mistake I made

This nightmare is enough to make anyone wince.A British woman may never see out of her right eye again after a devastating parasite burrowed into her cornea, leaving doctors with no choice but to sew her lid shut in a desperate attempt to save her sight.Now, Emma Marsden is opening up about the innocent mistake that triggered the horrifying ordeal, hoping her story can help others avoid the same fate.It all started in February, when Marsden took a tumble while cleaning out horse stables, landing headfirst in a wheelbarrow filled with dirt and water.Thinking nothing of it, the 47-year-old cleaned herself off, washing away the dirt and mud from her hands and face — but she didn’t remove her contact lenses until later that evening.That seemingly harmless decision would trigger a devastating chain of events.Four days after her fall, Marsden’s right eye began stinging.

The pain quickly escalated, becoming “excruciating,” as her vision started to fade.After initial tests came back clear, doctors diagnosed her with an ulcer and sent her home with prescription eye drops.But over the following days, the pain became unbearable — and the former personal trainer from Lancashire eventually lost all vision in her right eye.“My eye was excruciatingly painful and red,” she said, according to a report by The Sun.“Any time light hit my eye the pain was so severe I couldn’t open my eyes.”It wasn’t until a follow-up appointment in March that doctors discovered the real culprit: acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare but potentially vision-threatening infection.The condition occurs when a microscopic organism called Acanthamoeba invades the cornea, the clear, dome-shaped outer layer at the front of the eye.“It eats through your eye and cornea and all your nerves,” Marsden said.

“The speed it ate at, the doctors couldn’t believe it.”Doctors told Marsden she likely picked up the infection when she washed her face with her contact lenses still in, as Acanthamoeb...