This woman's eye infection turned out to be something worse: 'I could see them moving across my eye'

TW: Disturbing details

Imagine you’re going on with your day normally, but have itchiness in your eye. When you go to check your eye in a mirror you see a worm squirming right inside it. This scene sounds like something straight out of a horror movie, right?

But this horror became reality for this woman who thought her irritated eye was just some menial issue.

There was something in Abby's eye

28-year-old Abby Beckley was going on with her life as usual when she started experiencing irritation and itchiness in her eyes. She might have thought that the cause of this may have been an errant eyelash, but what she found was far worse.

As reported by CNN, who covered her story in 2018, it was after her trip to Alaska in 2016 that Abby’s eye started getting worse.

She pulled her eyelid down and started to gently pick around the eye, hoping to stop the irritation. When she retrieved her finger she saw a small white worm on it. The woman was left flabbergasted and rushed to the hospital. Upon further testing the doctors were clueless and didn’t know what to make of this situation, Abby explained:

They said they had never seen anything like this… And then I could see them moving across my eye at that point, too. There were so many.

Infested with unique worm species

Although Abby wasn’t in any serious pain she was extremely concerned that the worms being so close to the brain, might travel there and cause great damage or even leave her blind. The doctors were having a hard time finding the root of the worms and how they entered her eye. Fortunately, she got in touch with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and they agreed to help her.

After many tests, the scientists found out that Abby’s eye had been infested with a unique worm species that have never been found in humans before, which made her case the first ever in the world. Finally, a total of 14 worms were pulled out of her eye. According to Washington Post, medical parasitologist Richard Bradbury shared that the worm species is called, Thelazia gulosa, he said:

We never expected to see this particular species in a human

The worms are carried by flies and are usually found in cattle. A fly must have hit Abby when she was out and it must have planted the worms in her eye.

Read more:

⋙ Man reveals horrific reason why you should never sleep with contacts in your eyes: 'It’s a constant pain'

⋙ Man discovers tiny creatures living on his eyelashes

Sources used:

CNN: ‘I looked at it, and it was moving’: Worm in woman’s eye leads to unique discovery