Teen Suffered "Intolerable" Pain In His Eye Until Doctors Found A Worm

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Teen Suffered "Intolerable" Pain In His Eye Until Doctors Found A Worm

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If touching your eye creeps you out, you should probably just skip this article and read about this adorable dog instead. But, if you aren't easily squeamish, then keep reading!

It can be seriously irritating to lose a contact in your eye or to get that pesky eyelash stuck just beneath the lid, but nothing compares to the stomach-churning feeling of having a worm in your eye.

An unnamed 17-year-old boy suffered through increasingly intolerable pain for three weeks before he decided to see a doctor.

What they found will literally make you squirm in your seat!

After three weeks of suffering through discomfort and upon nearly losing all of his vision the teen decided it was time to seek medical help.

According to the case published in The New England Journal of Medicine, an eye exam revealed that a flatworm had lodged itself inside the teen's eyeball.

The flatworm was 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) long and 1 mm (0.04 inches) wide.

A disturbing video reveals the worm as it moves freely in the eye of the patient. It had comfortably set up home, drilling holes in the teen's iris as it moved around. The boy suffered serious damage to his retina, cornea and iris.

While the doctors successfully removed the flatworm "in multiple pieces," the boy's vision did not improve.

The teen hadn't swum in contaminated water, and he hadn't eaten any contaminated foods. It was rare, but possible for him to have been infected by an animal carrying the worms.

According to Dr. Jules Winokur, an opthamologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, it is possible that he was invaded through skin contact with an infected animal.

"Animals such as dogs, raccoons, skunks, fish or frogs can carry the parasite, and people can get infected either through ingesting the eggs or through contact with invasion through the skin," he said.

Watch the video here.

[h/t Live Science / Newsweek]