FLORIDA: A 21-year-old man lost his vision after he fell asleep with his contact lenses in. The incident happened in Florida. Mike Krumholz lost his vision to a rare flesh-eating parasite after he fell asleep wearing the lenses. He has been using contact lenses for the past seven years and usually forgets to take them out. He experiences an odd eye infection if that happens. Now it has led to him losing vision.

“In the morning I felt really irritated like the lenses were floating in the eye and I took them out. I went to play baseball and had to take my contacts out suddenly. I told my parents and then went to see the doctor.”, he said.

He was initially diagnosed with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). The doctors treated him but his condition worsened. The doctors discovered that acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare species of flesh-eating parasite, was feeding away his right eye. But Mike lost his vision before treatment.

He slept without removing the lenses on December 19 last year. He said that the first two weeks of diagnosis were extremely painful. Mike might need an eye transplant. But a transplant can be done when he is eligible for it. It is reported that by doing so, Mike will get 50 percent of his vision.