A healthcare worker lost vision in one eye after repeatedly wearing her daily contact lenses for fortnight-long stretches. Mother-of-four Katie Carrington, 36, began using daily disposable lenses aged 17 and developed poor habits of keeping them in following evenings out.

Katie Carrington, a dedicated nurse and mother of four from Romford, Essex, found herself facing a serious health crisis after neglecting proper contact lens care. At 36 years old, Katie experienced a frightening loss of vision in one eye, a consequence of wearing her daily disposable contact lenses for extended periods—sometimes as long as two weeks without removal.

Her journey with contact lenses began at the age of 17, but over time, her habits slipped from occasional overnight wear after evenings out to dangerously prolonged use. This lapse in eye care led to a severe incident in August 2025, when Katie was hospitalized due to excruciating eye pain. The situation escalated to complete vision loss in her right eye, leaving medical professionals uncertain about her chances for recovery.

Doctors identified the cause as a bacterial infection, which had developed due to contamination trapped beneath the lenses. Despite the initial grim outlook, Katie’s vision astonishingly improved, returning to normal within five weeks.

Reflecting on her experience, Katie is now a vocal advocate for awareness about the risks of improper contact lens use. “I was really careless,” she admitted. “I thought it was okay to wear them just a bit longer, but it became a habit to keep them in for too long.”

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“Looking back now, I don’t know why I did it. One night in August 2025, I was lying in bed and my eyes were pounding and streaming.

“The next morning, I woke up in unbearable pain – it was worse than giving birth. I couldn’t see at all in my right eye. Doctors didn’t know if my sight would come back.

“I was so depressed, thinking I wouldn’t get to see my kids growing up. Even though it was just one eye, I felt like all my independence had been taken away from me.

“Daily tasks became so hard. When I was making a bottle for my baby I would spill it everywhere and I had to focus so hard to cut things up in the kitchen.

“Thank the Lord I can see again, but I will never wear contacts again. It was my fault and I take full accountability, but I didn’t know the risks associated with them.

“I urge contact lens wearers to read up about the risks. I thought it would never happen to me, because I got away with it for so long, but now I’m focused on looking after myself.”

Katie was advised she required spectacles at 16, but despising her appearance whilst wearing them, she switched to contact lenses a year later. She bought daily disposable lenses through online retailers.

Periodically, Katie would misplace a contact lens behind her eye and would retrieve it manually using her fingers. One evening in August 2025, whilst Katie lay in bed, her eyes began throbbing intensely as tears streamed down her face.

Katie initially dismissed the discomfort, removing her lenses before attempting to sleep. However, her eyes streamed continuously overnight, and she awoke experiencing “unbearable” agony, which she likened to being worse than childbirth.

Unable to open her right eye whatsoever and feeling as though she was being “stabbed in the eye”, she wrapped a scarf around her head while her husband rushed her to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. Medical staff scraped her eyeballs to test for microorganisms that might have caused the vision loss, an experience she described as “traumatic”.

Clinicians explained that microscopic bacteria could have entered her contact lenses, triggering an infection which resulted in blindness. Katie was required to wear an eyepatch and was informed it remained uncertain whether her vision would return.

Throughout 48 hours, she administered eye drops hourly, including through the night, and attended weekly appointments at Moorfields to monitor any improvement. She took four weeks’ leave from work to recuperate, during which she felt “depressed”, as losing her sight had robbed her of her independence.

She contemplated resigning from her position, as she couldn’t see well enough to drive there, and began worrying about adapting to life with partial sight. Everyday activities became extraordinarily challenging, and she would blame herself when spilling things on the floor, as she couldn’t see what she was doing.

Following a five-week period, Katie was relieved when her vision returned to normal. Medical professionals have informed her that wearing contact lenses remains an option, though she insists it’s “not worth it”.

“If one person learns from this that you shouldn’t leave contact lenses in, then I feel like I’ve made a difference”, she said.