Leigh Stanger, 43, says a split-second mix-up turned her daily LASIK dry-eye routine into an emergency when she accidentally put nail glue in her eye on June 6.
On the morning of June 6, Leigh Stanger expected the familiar relief of eye drops.
She woke up in Maryland with “really dry” eyes, rolled over, and “instinctively grabbed the bottle” sitting on her night stand. She tilted her head back, opened her eyes wide, and moved on with her morning—until it instantly went wrong.
What she put in her eye wasn’t eye drops at all. Stanger realized almost immediately that the “bottle” was nail glue she had used days earlier and left on the table.
“It immediately burned, and when I closed my eye, it instantly glued my eye shut,” Stanger said. “I was frantically trying to open my eyes, and I could feel my eyelashes melting together. I was in the bathroom running water on my eye, trying to open it and I could not. I was afraid my eyelid was going to be glued to my eyeball.”.
Stanger and her boyfriend rushed her to the local emergency room. After hours of waiting, doctors placed Vaseline on her eye to loosen the glue. Eventually, she was transferred to the ophthalmology department at the nearest Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was seen immediately.
In the hospital, doctors used optical ointment every 20 minutes to loosen the glue in her eyelashes. She was also given morphine for the severe pain.
“My whole face hurt, my sinuses hurt, my head hurt and my eye hurt. It was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced,” Stanger said.
As time passed, her inner eye finally began to open—after about several hours and only when it had the least glue. Doctors pried it apart. When they reached the middle of her eye, they used scissors to cut through the glue.
Stanger said she feared she might lose her vision in that eye, or possibly the eye itself.
More than 12 hours after the nail glue incident, she was finally able to reopen her eye and said she “immediately burst into tears.” There was still glue inside, and an ophthalmologist had to use tweezers to pick out dried shards.
When the clinician told her to open her eyes for the first time, Stanger described relief turning quickly into concern. Doctors checked her vision, diluted her eyes, and gave her a full eye exam. Stanger was found to have “a very large corneal abrasion. ” along with “multiple abrasions and chemical burns inside my lower lid and on my eye.”.
Stanger still has some glue stuck to her eyelid and eyelashes. She has been given ointment and antibiotic eye drops to keep using. But she has lost most of her eyelashes, and her vision in that eye remains blurry due to the abrasion—even so, she is expected to make a full recovery.
Stanger said she feels lucky the damage wasn’t worse. Her doctor told her the situation is not uncommon.
“The doctor told me that she sees it all the time, unfortunately it’s not uncommon. I’m sure there’s some people out there who aren’t as lucky as I was,” Stanger said. “My daughter does her own nails, and I would absolutely lose it if anything like that happened to my child.”
She said she can’t stop thinking about what could have happened if she’d been alone or if a child had made the same mistake.
“What if I was alone when it happened, or what if a child does this and they’re alone?. It’s just an unthinkably scary situation,” Stanger said. “And it’s crazy that they are allowed to put nail glue in bottles that look exactly like eye drops. It is important to read any label before you put something in your eye. which I’ve learned the hard way.”.
nail glue eye burns chemical burn corneal abrasion LASIK Johns Hopkins Maryland health