A young woman has described how she gouged out her own eyes while she was high on crystal meth.

Kaylee Muthart, 20, was heard screaming outside South Main Chapel and Mercy Centre in South Carolina on February 6.

When parishioners ran out they found her holding her eyeballs in her hands and desperately tried to restrain her.

She has now told how – in a drug-addled haze – she thought she had heard God calling on her to make the gruesome “sacrifice”.

“So I pushed my thumb, pointer, and middle finger into each eye. “I gripped each eyeball, twisted, and pulled until each eye popped out of the socket — it felt like a massive struggle, the hardest thing I ever had to do.” It was at this point that worried worshippers emerged from the church after hearing her screaming: “I want to see the light!” She told Cosmopolitan.

She said the pastor later told her that by the time he reached her she was holding both her eyes in her hands.

“I had squished them, although they were somehow still attached to my head,” Muthart said.

It took a team of police to calm her down before she was airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital’s trauma unit, where doctors cleaned what was left of her orbital sockets to prevent infection.

Doctors believe the drug she ingested was laced with another chemical, causing her to have hallucinations in which she heard voices telling her to “sacrifice her eyes” so she could make it into heaven.

Mom Katy Tompkins told People of her horror at hearing doctors tell her that Muthart was completely blind.

Her daughter said she would go to rehab a day before the horrific incident.

“The day before it happened, which was my birthday, I was getting ready to have her committed, just to get her off the streets and away from it. But I was too late,” Tompkins said.

Tompkins believes her daughter unintentionally started using the drug, known as methamphetamine, six months ago when she moved out of the family home.

She said her daughter took marijuana from a friend, but it was laced with crystal meth.

Muthart is now slowly getting better, but doctors believe it could be a long road to full recovery.

“I don’t know how I’m getting through it, but she has given me strength,” Tompkins said.

“It’s weird to say, but she uplifts me right now and she’s the one that can’t see.

“That ‘s just the kind of person she is. I’m thankful, it’s a horrible thing, but I’m still thankful because God spared her life.” Tompkins has launched a fundraising campaign to get Muthart a guide dog once she is out of the hospital.

“We are truly grateful for all the prayers and help we’ve received thus far and ask that you give whatever you can and continue to pray for us,” Tompkins said.

More than $25,000 has been raised so far to get the 20-year-old back on her feet.