A 35-year-old man in India had been experiencing blurry vision and a bloodshot eye for months. He finally went to an eye clinic where the doctors discovered that the problem wasn’t something that could be fixed with a corrective lens. It was a worm swimming in the back of his eyeball.
They don’t make drops for that.
In a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors detail the horrific case. The man’s left eye was inflamed, his pupil was blown wide open and unresponsive, and his vision was down to 20/80.
A quick peek inside revealed a wriggling parasite living in his vitreous humor, also known as the gel-like substance that fills the space between the lens and the retina.
Doctors quickly scheduled a pars plana vitrectomy, a procedure that’s not usually used to exterminate bugs. It’s reserved for retinal repairs and other high-end ocular maintenance. They made small cuts in the sclera (the white of the eye), stuck in a suction tool, and managed to snag the tail end of the worm. It came out alive and wiggling.
A Guy’s Blurry Vision Was Actually Worms Doing Laps in His Eyeball
Under a microscope, it was ID’d as Gnathostoma spinigerum, a parasitic worm native to India. Its life cycle passes through several animals before eventually finding its way into a human by way of eating undercooked meat. When humans get infected, it’s called gnathostomiasis.
The parasite begins to move around the stomach and intestines, causing a wide range of symptoms that can be misinterpreted as several illnesses. Then, the larvae start traveling to other organs, eating them as they go. It eventually ends its road trip throughout the body and makes a home in various organs, including the eyes.
Our unlucky patient was lucky it didn’t burrow into his brain. After extraction, he was treated with anti-parasitics and steroids. Eight weeks later, the inflammation had calmed, but his vision hadn’t returned. He developed a cataract, which can happen post-surgery.
The only thing more squirm-inducing than this story is the fact that it’s not the first time something like this has happened. Just last week, Live Science reported on a worm-based medical horror story based on a scientific report published in late 2024.
A 41-year-old woman in Beijing went to the hospital. It felt like there was something stuck in her eye. The doctors agreed that there was, given the signs of damage, but they couldn’t determine what was causing it.
After some prescribed eyedrops had no effect, the doctors re-examined her, this time finding “significant” bumps. They took an even closer look using a medical tool called an eyelid retractor, which pulls the eyelid back.
There they were, a bunch of small white worms known as Oriental Eye Worms, a name earned through reputation. The doctors carefully removed the worms and then flushed the eye to ensure there were no more lurking around.
A week later, she was feeling all better. That tends to happen when you remove the worms living in your eyes.
The post This Man’s Blurry Vision Turned Out To Be Worms Swimming in His Eyeball appeared first on VICE.
