Zombie Lenses Cause Partial Blindness in Local Teen

They were supposed to accentuate her zombie costume before a powder-puff football game between her school and another in late September.

Instead, the costume contact lenses St. Clair Shores Lakeview High School senior Leah Carpenter purchased at Gibralter Trade Center in Mount Clemens left her partially blind and looking for answers.

“It was just for show,” the 17-year old told the Detroit Free Press. “I wasn’t thinking anything could go wrong.”

What went wrong was the $26 lenses damaged the cornea in her right eye and resulted in numerous visits to doctors, pain and suffering, and partial blindness in that eye.

These lenses are not unique and are available at a wide array of local retail and online stores.

According to the Free Press article, the lenses are considered medical devices and thus fall under the umbrella of the Food and Drug Administration.

Federal officials told the Free Press that places advertising the lenses as cosmetic and are selling them without a prescription are breaking the law.

Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Free Press the lenses were likely being purchased online from overseas vendors and shipped to domestic retailers through the mail.

Walls said the lenses, “represent a serious, serious threat to consumers.”

According to the FDA, decorative lenses are not universal and that an ophthalmologist or optometrist needs to measure each eye to get the proper fit for such lenses.

A ill-fitting lens can cause serious damage - including damaged corneas, infection, pink eye, decreased vision or blindness.

The FDA recommends consumers not purchase lenses from any retailer unless a prescription is required.

As for Carpenter, she continues to recover from the injuries sustained as a result of the lenses, and surgery may be necessary, her mother, Dawn Carpenter, told the Free Press.

Whether the teen will recover her sight completely is unclear at this point, she said.