Florida resident Brianne Shipley was “half asleep” and tried to put her antibiotic drops into her eyes. But, she mistakenly grabbed a bottle of nail glue instead.
“That drive to the hospital was the worst pain — it was just burning, on fire, it felt like rocks in my eye,” Shipley told PEOPLE.
FL Woman Screamed in Pain After Using What She Thought Was Medicated Eye Drops
What started with a mild bacterial infection led to a hospital visit. Shipley was diagnosed with the infection and prescribed antibiotic drops for her eyes. Wanting to be diligent in administering the medication as directed, she set a timer for the next dose of drops.
The alarm sounded in the middle of the night, and Shipley reached for what she thought were her eye drops.
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“After I got the notification, I blindly reached over, grabbed the bottle, opened my eye with one hand and put the drops in,” she told PEOPLE.
She realized her terrible mistake even before the drop hit her eye, but it was too late. “I started screaming,” Shipley recalled. She grabbed acidic nail glue instead of her eye drops.
Thankfully, her 17-year-old son was home. He woke to her screaming and quickly attempted to help. He Googled what to do and found suggestions for flushing the eye as best as possible.
Shipley began to “panic” as she felt the glue setting quickly. She followed her son’s advice, first using a sink—then jumping into the shower.
“Flushing it with water did provide a little relief and did release the eye — it had initially been glued shut,” she said. Later, the doctors, at the hospital mentioned how helpful this first step had been—even “crucial” to prevent further damage.
Shipley took to TikTok to warn others to pay attention. The ER doctor said this same mistake happens more often than one would think.
@breezybre416 Horrible accident today. I waa getting up in the dark cause my eyedrop alarm wemt off and instead of grabbing the eye drops i hrabbed my kiss nail glue #ladysuperglueseye #kissglue ♬ original sound – BreezyBre
One viewer was encouraging, “My eyes instantly watered , prayers to you my gosh I know this is probably so scary.”
“I did the same thing,” offered JoJo. “Thought I was grabbing my saline solution for my eyes and it was nail glue. Horrible migraine. So much pain! Never did it again.”
