Halloween is a popular time for people to use colored contact lenses to enhance their costumes. Despite the warnings of FDA and eye experts regarding the dangers of cheap eye accessories that put you at risk of several serious conditions including eye infections and in rare cases, blindness, many are still inclined to these decorative contact lenses.
Laura Butler paid $30 for her decorative lenses and $2,000 in medical bills and nearly lost an eye. In another case, a 23 year old partygoer's experience last Halloween has also taught her to stop wearing cheap lenses.
Tia Goode, a psychology student at University of South Wales, dressed up as a leopard for Halloween party was left with unbearable pain after ripping off her cornea as she was trying to remove the pair of cat-eye contact lenses. The 18-year-old from Merthyr in Wales, was hospitalized and needed an eye-patch after the £7 contact lenses became so dry they stuck to her eye.
At home, Tia couldn't remove the contact lenses and ended up seeking help from a friend. Tia was not able to open her eyes after the lenses were taken off due to the intense pain.
The teenager told the student newspaper, The Tab: 'I attempted to get the right one out first, which was the bad one. I had to wake someone up and it took about forty minutes to get out.'
'I tried to go to sleep but couldn't because the pain was so bad, so I gave up and went up the hospital.'
Tia was in so much pain because the contacts had ripped her cornea, Doctors at Prince Charles Hospital told her.
"The lens was so dry that it had stuck to my eyeball and ripped the cornea completely out with it," she added.
Fortunately, the contacts did the leave a lasting damage to her eye and she was given antibiotics. Tia is now warning others to stay away from the cheap, non-prescription contacts.
She said: 'I'd recommend not to wear them as they're super dangerous and I didn't realize.
