This man was shocked to discover he had a wood splinter in his eye for 15 years

Doctors have found some shocking, and sometimes downright horrifying things inside their patients. Earlier, doctors found a 3cm long needle in a woman's brain. In another instance, they discovered a chopstick stuck in a man. In yet another case, there was a whole housefly inside a patient's intestine.

As reported by Daily Mail in yet another such case, a man discovered that he unknowingly had something lodged in his eye for 15 years! Here are all the details.

Man did not realise what was in his eye

Ophthalmologists at Wayne State University in Detroit and Harvard Medical School published a report with the 'remarkable' finding in BMJ.

A patient in his 30s came in for an eye check-up and found something he couldn't have fathomed. Eye doctors found a piece of wooden splinter lodged in his cornea!

Not just that, it is surmised that it might have been there for the past 15 years, without him realising.

Daily Mail quotes the report where doctors write,

Most cases are detected and managed promptly after the injury, as they often cause significant pain, redness and tearing, and serve as a nidus for infection.

However, in some instances, the foreign body may be asymptomatic and can remain undetected for an extended period.

How the splinter got into the eye

As per the report, the patient had suffered an eye injury while gardening 15 years ago. Though he felt pain and discomfort in its aftermath, he didn't seek medical treatment or evaluation on it. The report states,

No further ophthalmic evaluation or treatment was pursued, and the patient’s vision appeared stable over the years.

Doctors state that the wooden splinter had pierced though the corneal stroma and endothelium. But in spite of the wooden object stuck in his cornea, the patient did not have any issues with his vision or show any other abnormalities.

For now, the patient has been advised to carry on as usual, since it did not seem that the wooden foreign body has caused any harm. It is not clear whether the foreign object has since been removed from the eye.

Read more:

⋙ This woman complained of terrible stomach pains, what doctors discovered was totally unexpected

⋙ Doctors couldn't believe what they pulled out of this woman's eye

⋙ This woman had an object hidden on her during an MRI, what happened next will make you wince

Sources used:

BMJ: 'Incidental finding of a retained intracorneal wooden foreign body'

Daily Mail: ' Eye kid you not! Doctors find tiny wooden splinter buried in man's cornea which had gone unnoticed for 15 years'