Man blinded after swimming in contact lenses

A property developer was blinded on a Spanish holiday after swimming while wearing his contact lenses.

Muir Fulton, 45, from Doonfoot, Ayr, needed a cornea transplant after both eyes became infected.

He cut short his holiday and flew home after speaking to an eye surgeon at Ayr Hospital by telephone.

Muir went for a morning swim, forgetting he had his contact lenses in and an infection spread behind the lenses. Within hours it had begun to damage his eyes. By the following day he was struggling to see.

He spoke to eye surgeon Mr Sathish Srinivasan. “He told me to cut my holiday short and fly home immediately. I knew I was going blind,” Muir explained.

Muir’s eyes were so badly infected that the cornea was scarred, blocking images passing through to the eye.

He was admitted urgently to Ayr Hospital where he was given antibiotic eye drops every 30 minutes around the clock for four days. Mr Srinivasan said only a cornea transplant in his right eye offered hope:

“We got a donor cornea from the national eye bank and I am delighted to say it has worked, against considerable odds. Many people don’t know never to swim or take a shower with contact lenses. It’s also easy to forget you are wearing them.”