An Auckland woman came close to losing sight in one eye after bathing in contaminated water in Bali. Fighting the infection the lawyer and mother-of-two endured five days of sleep deprivation, woken hourly to have antibiotics administered.

Last month Jenine​ Briggs went to Bali on a week-long yoga retreat. During the retreat she visited the Hindu Balinese water temple Tirta Empul, near the town of Tampaksiring, where it's common for visitors to bathe in the temple's holy water.

"I dunked my head under the fountain. The water was clear, it looked absolutely pristine," Briggs said.

Peter Casey The Auckland lawyer, far right, was in Bali to relax at a yoga retreat.

The following morning she woke up with "a lot gunk" oozing out of her eye.

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The "serious infection" worsened over the following two days, just before she was due to fly home.

"By the time I got to the airport my eye had swollen up quite a lot. The white of my eye had gone completely red and my cheek was also swollen, hot and painful."

Visiting the departure gate's bathroom she noticed pus beginning to seep out. "That's when I started to get nervous."

Briggs' specialist at Auckland's Greenlane Hospital said she had contracted a waterborne infection from either the shower water or the temple water.

"In terms of timing it makes sense (that it came from temple's water)."

Her flight home was a "pain endurance test" unable to open the infected eye without agony.

During a two hour stopover in Sydney she was assessed by an airport nurse and was "lucky" to be allowed to fly the final leg of the journey home.

Disembarking in Auckland she took a taxi directly to an accident and emergency clinic. Forty-eight hours later she was admitted to Greenlane Hospital's eye clinic.

"I realised when I got into hospital I couldn't see anything out of it. The doctor asked how many fingers he was holding up and I couldn't see anything, that was scary.

"It was like looking into fire, all I could see was this red, orange blur."

The clinic's cornea specialist told Briggs the pseudomonas aeruginosa​ infection she was diagnosed with was "very serious and very rare".

"They said other people who have had the same infection have lost their eyesight."

To treat the infection nurses woke her hourly for five days to administer eye drops and antibiotics.

"It was gruelling. I can see why sleep deprivation is used as torture."

To diagnose the infection a sample of her cornea was taken using a razor blade to scrape off the top layer.

While in hospital a friend who was on the yoga retreat with Briggs and had stayed on in Bali contacted her to say E.coli had been found at a temple.

"She said a local newspaper reported E.coli had been found in the water at one of the temples. Villagers had been using the rivers as a dumping ground for sewage."

While the story didn't name the temple, Briggs said it did identify the Gianyar region, home to the Tirta Empul temple.

She was discharged from hospital a fortnight ago and is recovering at home. A scan revealed she hasn't suffered any permanent damage.

"I loved Bali, but wouldn't go back without goggles."