- A man in Taiwan was permanently blinded in one night after sleeping on it
- The pressure had caused blood vessels to rupture and fluid to accumulate.
- READ MORE: The flesh-eating parasite almost left me BLIND in one eye
A man in Taiwan was left permanently blind in one eye after a night of heavy drinking and falling asleep face down.
The unnamed patient, 44, went to an emergency room in Puzi City, Taiwan, after three days of blindness and pain in his left eye.
He said the symptoms started after going out drinking and taking insomnia medication.
The patient had been passed out for three hours and had fallen asleep in a position that put pressure on the affected eye.
When doctors examined him, his left pupil was not moving or responding to light.
Experts wrote in the case report that the patient suffered from ophthalmoplegia, meaning his eye muscles were paralyzed. The eye was also bulging.
When doctors examined the unnamed patient, his left pupil was not moving or responding to light.
The pressure on the eye caused the blood vessels to burst, causing bleeding.
The team found that the pressure on the eye had caused the subconjectival blood vessels, which lie just beneath the clear surface of the eye, to rupture.
This caused bleeding and the tissue around the eye swelled. The patient was diagnosed with ischemic optic neuropathy (ION) and choroidopathy.
ION occurs when blood does not flow properly to the eye’s optic nerve, which carries signals from the eyes to the brain and converts them into images that can be seen, resulting in vision loss.
Vision loss due to ION is usually permanent, as the optic nerve eventually stops working properly and dies. However, patients with ION tend to still have some peripheral vision.
People with conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes are at higher risk of developing ION as they can affect blood circulation.
The patient’s left eye also bulged due to the injury.
Meanwhile, choroidopathy is a disease that causes fluid to build up under the retina, the layer at the back of the eye that captures light and translates it into images.
Symptoms often include dark, blurry blind spots in the center of vision, distortion, and objects that appear smaller or farther away than they really are.
“Historically, this disease has been known as ‘Saturday night retinopathy’ due to its association with the use of alcohol and sedative substances,” the experts wrote.
“There is no consensus on the treatment of this disease.”
The patient received high doses of steroids to prevent the pressure from worsening.
While some people report having regained vision, after four months this patient reported that he was still blind in his left eye.
The case report was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.