Parasite in Eyeball Nearly Blinds Teen, From Contaminated Contact Lens [VIDEO]

A parasite in eyeball that grew on her contaminated contact lens nearly blinds a teenage girl in Florida.

Ashely Hyde, 18, suffered an acanthamoeba infection in her eye, as the parasite grew on her contact lens, so when she used her contacts it was placed right onto the eye. It was then the parasite began eating through her cornea, nearly robbing of her eyesight.

The high school senior went to the doctors as they tried to find out why her left eye was red, throbbing and inflamed.

"They did multiple cultures where they scrape your eye," Hyde told Local 10. "One time, they had to drill into my eye. It was really nasty."

"Every day, we see people come in with contact lens related to infections, complications, ulcers," Dr. Adam Clarin, an optometric physician, told the station. "There are all things that are potentially blinding."

"There is nothing safer or healthier than throwing out the lens every day and starting with a new one the next day," Clarin added.

The Centers for Disease Control says that acanthamoeba is a microscopic parasite that can "cause rare, but severe infections of the eye, skin, and central nervous system," which can be found in water and soil to spread through contact lens, cuts or skin wounds or haled into the lungs.

"Most people will be exposed to Acanthamoeba during their lifetime, but very few will become sick from this exposure," the CDC adds.