Julian Hamlin, 23 told Buzzfeed he bought the pair for N3,000 ($15) without a prescription as you could easily lay your hands on them in Petrol stations and beauty stores.
Hamlin wore the lenses almost every day and took proper precautions to disinfect and replace them each month.
After wearing the same brand of contact lenses for about two years, he woke up in March 2012 with a severe infection.
“It was so out the blue. … I just woke up and my eye felt weird, so I went to the doctor, but he thought it was pinkeye,” says Hamlin.
Three days later, he was in the hospital with blindness in his left eye, Hamlin later developed glaucoma from increased eye pressure.
“It’s been a long, painful journey,” Hamlin says of the 15 surgeries, including seven corneal transplants, he has needed since 2012.
In a two-year span, Hamlin says, his medical expenses have topped 50 million naira. Hamlin, also suffered unemployment and emotional pain due to his injuries. “I’ve had to miss so many days of work, and I can’t lift anything over 25 pounds because it increases the pressure in my eyes, so I’m limited in my jobs,” he says.
He advised the youth not put it contacts on without getting a prescription, it is not worth the risk and pain.
“You want to have fun and look beautiful, not end up in the ER and possibly blinded for life.”
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