Nurse left blind in one eye after 'stupid' mistake

A nurse went blind in one eye after she left her daily contact lenses in for up to two weeks at a time. Mum-of-four Katie Carrington, 36, started wearing daily disposable lenses at age 17 and got into a bad habit of not taking them out after nights out.

The nurse, from Romford, Essex, got worse - and was soon wearing the same lenses for weeks at a time, until she was rushed to hospital with “unbearable” pain in her eyes, in August 2025. She was left unable to see at all in her right eye and doctors were unsure whether her sight would come back.

Doctors said the blindness was caused by bacteria lodged in the eye behind the contact lenses, which led to an infection. Thankfully, her sight gradually improved and after five weeks her vision returned to normal. Katie is now urging others to think twice before leaving contact lenses in for extended periods of time.

She said: “I was really stupid - I misused my contact lenses. At first, I would go to parties and not take them out at night, but then I started wearing them for excessive amounts of time.

“I’d be terrible sometimes and wear them for a week or two at a time, I’d wait until my eyes were really dry and then take them out and change them. I did it out of convenience. My eyesight is pretty bad, so I just hated the fact that I’d wake up and couldn’t see.

“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 told she needed glasses at age 16, but after hating the way she looked in them decided to switch to contacts at age 17. She purchased daily disposable lenses online.

Every few months, Katie would lose a contact lens around the back of her eye and would fish it out herself with her fingers. One night, in August 2025, as Katie was lying in bed, her eyes started to pound and water began streaming out of them.

Katie didn’t think much of this, but took her lenses out and then tried to get to sleep. Her eyes continued to stream throughout the night, and in the morning, she woke up in “unbearable” pain, which she described as being worse than childbirth.

She was unable to open her right eye at all and felt like she was being “stabbed in the eye”, so she wrapped a scarf around her head and got her husband to drive her to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. Doctors scraped her eyeballs to test for microorganisms that could have caused the blindness, which she described as “traumatic”.

They explained that a tiny bit of bacteria could have got into her contact lenses, causing an infection, which led to blindness. Katie was made to wear an eyepatch and was told that it was unclear whether her eyesight would come back or not.

For 48 hours, she had to give herself eye drops every hour, even during the night, and had weekly check-ups at Moorfields to see if her condition had improved. She took four weeks off work to recover, during which time she felt “depressed”, as she felt like losing her sight had taken away her independence.

She considered leaving work, as she couldn’t see to drive there, and began panicking about how she would adapt to being partially sighted. Daily tasks became incredibly difficult, and she would feel like it was her fault when she would spill things on the floor, as she couldn’t see what she was doing.

After five weeks, to Katie’s relief, her sight returned to normal. Doctors have told her she could wear contact lenses again, but she said 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.