Liz Hodgkinson says she barely managed to keep the vehicle under control until she found a safe spot to pull over

Jan 13, 2015 13:21 GMT  ·  By

Some time ago, a young woman living in the UK had the surprise of a lifetime when her left eye pretty much exploded during a driving lesson. The surgeons who handled her case say that what happened was that, without warning, her cornea split.

At the time when this bizarre incident occurred, surgeons managed to fix her eye. However, just a few years later, the woman went through a similar experience. Long shorty short, her left eye once again burst, this time while she was sleeping.

Not long after, her right eye pulled the very same stunt. Hoping to help her not to lose her sight, surgeons operated on her and fitted both her eyes with new corneas kept in place by as many as 50 stitches. The good news is that, although she cannot see all that well, the woman is now feeling much better.

The woman never expected her eyeball to explode

Liz Hodgkinson from the town of Abergele on the north coast of Wales in the UK, who is now 30 years old, says that her left eye first exploded back in 2008. The woman remembers that, although the experience was rather painful, she simply assumed that she had something in her eye.

With the help of her instructor, the woman managed to keep control of the car and pull over. Shortly after, she was rushed to a local hospital where doctors successfully mended her split cornea. The thing is that, unfortunately, it did not take long for her left eyeball to act out once again.

On the contrary, it was in October 2012 that the very same eye burst while Liz Hodgkinson was sleeping. Merely five months later, the same thing happened to her right eye. Surgeons at the Abergele Hospital operated on her and fitted both her eyes with new corneas.

“I needed an eye transplant and was left with 25 stitches after being in surgery for more than three-and-a-half hours. Then five months after that I suffered the exact same problem in my right eye and needed another transplant,” the woman detailed in a recent interview, as cited by Mirror.

The incidents were due to a rare condition

The doctors who treated the woman say that her eyes burst without warning because of a rare genetic condition known as Keratoconus. They go on to detail that this disorder affects about one in 2,000 people and causes the cornea to become thinner and have a more conical shape.

It is understood that Liz Hodgkinson's mother and brother both suffer from Keratoconus. Despite knowing that she too risked developing this disorder, the 30-year-old woman never suspected that her eyes would simply explode out of the blue.

Liz Hodgkinson  has so far been subjected to two cornea transplants
Liz Hodgkinson has so far been subjected to two cornea transplants

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Rare condition makes woman's eyes burst without warning
Liz Hodgkinson  has so far been subjected to two cornea transplants
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