This Guy Went Blind Because Of One Mistake So Many People Make Every Night

This is Chad Groeschen, a 39-year-old from Cincinnati. Last month, Groeschen was at work when his eyes started itching. He figured it was allergies, so he wasn’t too concerned. Groeschen told BuzzFeed News that he woke up the next day feeling like he had a sinus infection, so he went to the doctor for medicine. The day after, Groeschen woke up with excruciating pain in his left eye, and almost no vision at all. He found a specialist, who told him his eye was severly infected with Pseudomonas bacteria. Doctors told Groeschen that they think he contracted the bacteria from sleeping in extended-wear contacts. Even though Groeschen’s contacts were “extended wear,” the American Academy of Ophthalmology said in 2013 that “overnight wear, regardless of contact lens type, increases the likelihood of corneal infection.” Groeschen told BuzzFeed News that he took his out about once a week. Doctors told Groeschen that the bacteria likely got under his lens and began viciously attacking his eye. “(The) contact kind of acts like a petri dish,” he said. The active hiker and scuba diver said that at this point, he is completely blind in one eye.