North Texas doctors warn about recalled eye drops that could potentially blind you
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – North Texas doctors want you to be on the lookout for something that could leave you permanently blind.
Last week, the CDC warned about two contaminated brands of eye drops that are the subject of a recall – Delsam Pharma's Artificial Tears and EzriCare Artificial Tears.
Dry eyes are a very common ailment that a lot of us use drops to treat.
There's a good possibility that people who don't know about the danger may already have them in medicine cabinets or still find them on some store shelves despite the recall.
There are two brands of artificial tears produced by Global Pharma Healthcare that are being pulled from store shelves across the country.
Some bottles of the dry eye solutions were found to have bacterial contamination resulting in 55 cases of infections, some causing permanent blindness and even one death.
Dr. Jaime Gonzalez is a therapeutic optometrist in Plano who says more attention needs to be paid to the danger the drops can pose.
Symptoms associated with the infections include watery eyes, itching, redness, light sensitivity, cloudiness and pain.
"This is like a matter of hours, and maybe a day or two because this bacteria eats the front part of your eye so you have to take action very quick," he said.
He urges dry eye sufferers to only use certain types of drops.
"We usually do recommend preservative free, artificial tears that are in single vile containers," he said.
Even though the manufacturer has requested that the bottles be returned, there's no guarantee they aren't still being sold to unsuspecting customers.
