Zombie contact lenses cause injury to Macomb teen's eye

Leah Carpenter was just doing her part in being a zombie before a powder puff football rivalry game between her school and another.

To make her costume complete, the Lakeview High School senior bought a pair of colored contact lenses at a store at Gibraltar Trade Center in Mt. Clemens, the same spot where a couple of other girls bought similar lenses.

“It was just for show. That was our theme for the day,” Carpenter, 17, of St. Clair Shores said of the event late last month. “I wasn’t thinking anything would go wrong.”

But something did go wrong.

The $26 pair of lenses partially blinded her in her right eye, damaging her cornea, turning a day of fun into a nightmare that included numerous visits to doctors and missing school and extracurricular activities.

“It’s unbelievable to watch her suffer and the pain that she was in and there’s no way to help her,” Carpenter’s mother, Dawn Carpenter, said.

Decorative lenses are being sold at a variety of stores from party supply or Halloween costume stores, to gas stations. But federal officials consider them as medical devices regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Messages seeking comment were left at Body Jewelry and More, the store where Carpenter bought the lenses, and at the Gibraltar Trade Center offices in Mt. Clemens. The Free Press also sent emails seeking comment to WickedEyez, the maker of the lenses. The phone number on the company's website did not appear to work.

Federal officials say that places that advertise decorative lenses as cosmetics or sell them without a prescription are breaking the law. Such lenses are getting into stores through various ways, but it is believed the majority of them are being purchased online from an overseas vendor and shipped through the mail, said Khaalid Walls, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He said such contacts “represent a serious, serious threat to consumers.” He said people buying decorative lenses “need to see an eye doctor and get a prescription” and buy from only those authorized to sell contact lenses – such as licensed, trained eye doctors.

“(Decorative contact lenses) are out there. Our focus is to educate. We’ll never be able to go to every dollar store, every beauty store,” said Walls, who said ICE handles these types of cases because they are considered intellectual property rights investigations, which is one of ICE’s primary investigative areas. “You see the dangers … It’s just not worth it.”

Walls could not comment on whether ICE is investigating the incident involving Carpenter and could not speak specifically to her case. He said decorative sales and injuries have been an issue for federal authorities for last four or five years, with their main push in getting the products out of stores.

Information on the FDA’s website states that decorative lenses are not one size fits all and that an ophthalmologist or optometrist must measure each eye to properly fit the lenses and evaluate how a person’s eye responds to contact lens wear and provide instructions on how to clean and care for the lenses. A poor fit can cause serious eye damage including scratches on the cornea, corneal infection, pink eye, decreased vision and blindness, it states.

The FDA states it is aware that many places illegally sell decorative contact lenses without valid prescriptions for as low as $20. The agency recommends consumers not buy lenses from street vendors, salons or beauty supply stores or the internet unless the site requires a prescription.

Liz Howell, a patient coordinator at Suburban Eye Care in Livonia, said the office sells colored contact lenses but not decorative ones. She said doctors must determine if a person’s eyes are healthy enough to wear contacts. She said some people can be allergic to contact lens solutions and that a person “wants their eyes to be able to breathe.”

Bruce Hoffman, owner of the Road Show in Roseville, said his store carried WickedEyez contacts for a year or two without learning of any problems, but he said he won’t carry them any longer after hearing about what happened to Carpenter.

“I don’t want any problems,” said Hoffman, whose been in business since 1986.

Hoffman had several policies in place before selling the $49.99 contacts. The buyer of the lenses had to be 18 years old, show proof of ID and had to sign a paper indicating that contact lenses were regulated as medical devices by the FDA and that the product was returnable if a doctor said the buyer wasn’t a proper candidate to wear them. The store also handed out an instruction sheet with the product.

The Carpenters said that wasn’t the case at Body Jewelry and More.

Leah Carpenter said there was no instructions given. Her mother said she had to go back to get a receipt for the product, which she said was called WickedEyez. After the purchase, Dawn Carpenter said that she had her daughter buy contact lens solution and told her to clean the lenses well, she said.

Dawn Carpenter said her daughter, then 16, wore the contacts for about four hours at school and mentioned she had a hard time getting them out, particularly the right eye. The teen indicated her vision, such as her peripheral vision, bothered her. The next morning, she said, she found her daughter's eye was swollen shut.

Dawn Carpenter said she thought it was pink eye and took her daughter to the doctor. She ended up going to urgent care, an emergency room, another hospital and finally treatment at Beaumont Eye Institute in Royal Oak, where her daughter continues to go.

Leah Carpenter said she is not aware of any of the other girls who bought lenses at the same trade center store having problems.

Initially, all Leah Carpenter could see were shadows but as her eye heals, she has regained some of her vision, Dawn Carpenter said, adding that her daughter may require surgery on her eyes. At this point, she said, they don't know if he daughter will regain all of her vision. The family has contacted an attorney, but no litigation has been filed, Dawn Carpenter said.

Contact Christina Hall: chall99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.