Tap water in contacts temporarily blinded Lethbridge woman

Washing your face or taking a shower are seemingly simple daily tasks that left one Lethbridge woman who uses contact lenses temporarily blind.

Sam Hart was blind in both eyes for four months and lost vision in her left eye for about nine months. Now, after three cornea transplants, she can finally see again.

“I had to face a lot of different battles and it’s weird going blind and then coming back out the other side,” she said. “I don’t think many people get that.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I had to face a lot of different battles and it's weird going blind and then coming back out the other side," she said. "I don't think many people get that."

It all began last year when Hart got a cornea infection after mixing local tap water with her contact lenses.

“It’s simply luck of the draw whether you got water in your eyes while wearing contacts and something was in the water that got trapped,” she said.

“I happen to wash my face or shower after work a lot because I deal with dogs. There’s a lot of spit, there’s a lot of drool and hair. And so I’d come home and I’d wash my face not thinking anything of it.”

That was a mistake Hart said she will never make again, adding that she now takes extra precaution while washing her face to make sure the water doesn’t get in her eyes, even though she no longer uses contacts.

“It was really scary. I had to call my mom the first day crying because I couldn’t operate a microwave,” she said, tearing up. “We didn’t realize that it’s all flat. You can’t see, so you can’t push buttons.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It was really scary. I had to call my mom the first day crying because I couldn't operate a microwave," she said, tearing up. "We didn't realize that it's all flat. You can't see, so you can't push buttons."

One of Hart’s ophthalmologists, Dr. Michael Johnson, said her case is extremely rare, and chances of this happening are one in 500,000.

“There can actually be organisms in tap water, even though it’s clean water or in swimming pools, hot tubs,” he said.

“These organisms generally don’t cause us any harm, but in the right conditions… if there’s some sort of micro-disruption on the corneal surface, those organisms can then get in the cornea.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "These organisms generally don't cause us any harm, but in the right conditions… if there's some sort of micro-disruption on the corneal surface, those organisms can then get in the cornea."

Contact lens users shouldn’t clean them with tap water or wear them while being in water, Johnson said, noting that although the risks are low, they can be devastating.

Hart learned that the hard way. A year later, however, she sees a brighter future.

“I loved colours before,” she said, smiling. “And then after all this, they’re just extra bright.”