A UK man was horrified to discover what he thought was an eyelash was actually a fly trapped in his eye for hours.
Leicester resident Michael Tshikaya 27 was cycling home from work through the forest when he felt something caught in his eye. He initially thought it must be a stray eyelash or some debris from a tree in the forest.
“It felt like when an eyelash falls into your eye,” he said. Tshikaya tried to rub it off thinking it must be a stray eyelash or some tiny piece of debris from the trees which flew in to his eye.
When Tshikaya tried to rub it out he felt a sudden sharp pain in the eye. Thinking the excessive scratching might aggravate his eye condition, he washed his eye with water in a shopping center washroom, however, he found no relief.
Presuming it was just a scratch, upon reaching home he took a closer look in the mirror. He saw something black in the corner of his eye, and assumed it “was blood from the scratch,” he said.
Tshikaya didn’t want to take any further chances and decided to see an optician. He reached out to local Specsavers and gave them a lowdown about the incident and described his symptoms.
Optometrist Siddharth Majitha found the fly embedded under Tshikaya’s eyelid. “The fly was the size of a small fingernail and it took up quite a large bit of the eye,” said optometrist Siddharth. He then decided “to get this out” as quickly as possible. He used a cotton bud to remove the fly, which effectively provided relief to Tshikaya.
The eye was irritated when the fly was removed, but it immediately felt right as there was no sharp pain in the eye, Tshikaya said.
However, the optometrist Majitha was concerned that the eye might get infected as the fly was lodged in for a couple of hours. He prescribed some over the counter antibiotic eye drops to avoid risk of infection. In a follow-up appointment, Tshikaya’s eye had returned to normal.