英女子戴隐形眼镜游泳致失明

A woman lost the sight in one eye after going swimming in a pool at a hotel spa wearing contact lenses.

Jennie Hurst, from Southampton, contracted acanthamoeba keratitis - a rare and painful infection caused by amoeba which naturally occurs in water.

The infection causes hypersensitivity to light and the 28-year-old said she was confined to a dark room for three months. She is now warning of the dangers of swimming or showering wearing contacts.

Ms Hurst underwent four operations, stays in hospital, and a treatment regime in which she had eye drops administered every half hour.

She said: "During that time I was literally confined to my bedroom with blackout blinds at the window. The only thing I could do was to listen to the radio.

"One evening, I was so desperate to look out of window to get a glimpse of the outside world that I opened my curtains in the middle of the night.

"As soon as I did this the moon shone in my eyes and it really hurt. I didn't do that again in a hurry."

Ms Hurst said she has been left with no vision in her left eye and the damage to her cornea could be permanent.

The environmental coordinator, who had been wearing contact lenses for five years, went swimming at a hotel while on a residential training course with work.

"The irony is that I don't even like swimming - I only did a few laps," she said.

"My consultants were quite surprised that I had gone swimming and probably thought that I had been a bit lazy whereas I wasn't aware of the problem at all - it didn't even enter my brain to take them out.

"I felt guilty that I had let it happen when actually I could have just taken my contacts out and saved everyone a lot of time and bother and myself a lot of pain.

"I have always been so careful with my contact lenses. I always remove them when sleeping and always use contact lens solution to wash them."

英国一位女性近日因戴着隐形眼镜在一家宾馆的温泉池游泳，导致一只眼睛失明。

詹妮•赫斯特来自英国南安普敦，她患上了棘阿米巴角膜炎。这种罕见的角膜炎可使患者眼部疼痛，由一般生活在水中的棘阿米巴原虫引起。

这种感染可导致见光敏感。28岁的赫斯特说她不得不在暗室里呆了三个月。现在她警告大家，不要戴着隐形眼镜游泳或者洗澡。

赫斯特接受了4次手术，现在还在住院，还经历了半小时滴一次眼药水的治疗过程。

她说：“那段时间我只能呆在卧室里，窗边都不能有光线。我只能收听广播度日。”

“一天晚上，我太想看看窗外的世界了。我在半夜拉开窗帘。”

“我刚一拉开窗帘，月光就照在了我的眼睛上，太疼了。我马上拉紧了窗帘。”

赫斯特说，她的左眼已完全失明，角膜也造成了永久损坏。

赫斯特是一名环保协调员，戴隐形眼镜已经五年了。当时她正在进行住宅培训课程，在一家酒店下水玩了一会儿。

她说：“很讽刺的是，我根本不喜欢游泳，就是下去玩了一会儿。”

“我的顾问对我去游泳非常惊讶，可能认为我有点儿懒，其实我根本不清楚戴隐形眼镜游泳的危害，我甚至都没想过要取出眼镜。”

“发生这种事情，我感到很内疚，其实我当时应该取出眼镜，这样就可以不浪费大家那么多时间，不给大家带来麻烦，也不让自己如此疼痛。”

赫斯特说：“我戴隐形眼镜一直很小心，每天睡觉前我都取出，而且经常用专用护理液清洗隐形眼镜。”