Parasite in contact lens solution leaves QLD mum blinded and paralysed

A Queensland mum has been left paralysed and blinded after a series of event that started from a parasite in her contact lens solution. Claire Wilkinson was initially diagnosed with conjunctivitis, more commonly known as pinkeye, but she knew there was something crawling inside her left eye. She was right.

Wilkinson, a 38-year-old mother to two kids and a stepmother to one, said it all started with an itch in her eye ten years ago. She said she put her contact lenses in as usual in February 2007. However, half an hour later, she felt a pain in her left eye.

She told Kidspot that the pain got worse after a doctor at her work prescribed eye drops. She described the pain as “100 times” worse than childbirth. She went home and told her husband, David Rochford, who has since become her full-time carer.

Wilkinson went to a local GP, who diagnosed her with pinkeye, which is a common eye infection. She knew that it wasn’t that because it was so painful to be conjunctivitis. Later that night, she felt something crawl across her eye.

“It was the parasite,” she told Kidspot. “I could tell when it was awake and when it was snoozing.”

Four days later, she went to Princess Alexander Hospital in Brisbane to see an eye specialist. The specialist told her that she had the acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) parasite, which was caused by the contact lens solution not working properly. The brand was later recalled from the market.

The parasite multiplied in her eye so Wilkinson was prescribed strong chlorine-based eye drops, which she was to use every 15 minutes for seven weeks. It was tiring to use the eye drops that often; hence she had help from her mum in administering the treatment. And although the parasite appeared to have been killed by the treatment, it returned 10 months later. The pain returned with it.

As Metro reports, she had a cornea transplant and injections to ease the pain. Nothing worked. The hapless mum was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic pain condition of the face. She then underwent brain surgery in 2011. The surgery would cut the nerves to her face to paralyse it and stop the pain. However, she suffered a stroke during the operation.

The experience left her paralysed and bed-bound. She started to learn to walk again in 2012 after undergoing intensive physiotherapy. But again, the extreme trauma made her hair fall out and the stroke caused her feet to swell.

Wilkinson still needs more treatment but the technology that can help her isn’t available in Australia yet. “But I’m hopeful there might be in London,” she told Metro. “I know of an operation in London which they wouldn’t perform in Australia, but I am hopeful would cure me of pain.”

The whole family intends to move to the UK in four years when her daughter leaves school. “It’s a big move, but I would do anything to get better.”