Woman Rushed to Hospital After Grave Mistake While Attempting to Use Eye Drops: 'I Started Screaming' (Exclusive)

• A Florida woman swapped a bottle of nail glue for her medicated eye drops
• Brianne Shipley shared her story on TikTok, along with a video of doctors helping her wash the product out of her eye
• Shipley now talks about the importance of organizing medical products

A woman has gone viral on TikTok after sharing that she mistakenly put nail glue, instead of medical eye drops, in her eyes – leading to a visit to the hospital and a warning to others about the importance of keeping medical supplies well organized.

Brianne Shipley was half asleep on Oct. 31 when her Amazon Alexa device informed her it was time to apply eye drops.

Shipley, who lives in central Florida, was recently prescribed drops for a bacterial infection. Since it was her first time using eye drops, they weren’t part of her regular routine – but she kept them on her bedside table so she could apply them as directed, every few hours.

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Brianna Shipley.

Courtesy of Brianna Shipley

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“After I got the notification, I blindly reached over, grabbed the bottle, opened my eye with one hand and put in the drops,” she told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview.

She continues: “As the drop fell, I realized the consistency of the plastic bottle was wrong. As soon as it hit my eye, I started screaming.”

That’s when Shipley realized she’d reached for her nail glue — a sticky product she kept around the house for arts and crafts projects — instead of eye drops.

Her 17-year-old son woke up in the next bedroom as Shipley screamed into her phone, “Siri, call 911!”

“Those first 10 minutes there was a lot of panic – I didn’t know what was going to happen,” she says.

Her son did a quick Google search, telling Shipley to wash her off with water as best he could. She used the sink and then the shower to try to get as much of the product out as she could before heading to the nearest hospital.

“The water flush provided some relief and freed the eye – it was stuck at first,” she says, adding that doctors later told her that that first step at home was “crucial” in preventing further damage. it’s not over.

Brianne Shipley eye drops and nail glue.

Courtesy of Brianna Shipley

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“That drive to the hospital was the worst pain – it just stung, it burned, it felt like stones in my eye,” she says.

When they arrived at the hospital, doctors immediately took Shipley to an examination room, where she says she could see, but her vision was “blurry” and looking at lights gave her a burning sensation.

“The doctors and nurses were very helpful and immediately numbed him with eye drops,” she says. “Then they looked for tears and scratches and used a Q-tip to get out the hardened pieces of glue.”

Next, doctors used a Morgan lens—a plastic, sterile device that helps with drainage.

“The acid in the nail glue changed the pH level of my eye, so they had to take it all out,” says Shipley. “That flush lasted 30 to 45 minutes.”

Afterward, hospital staff sent Shipley home with medicated ointment to help her eye continue to heal.

“I was so embarrassed when I got to the hospital, but the doctor told me this happens a lot more than you think,” she tells PEOPLE.

She adds that she posted her story publicly on TikTok in hopes of alerting others to the fact that it’s easy to make mistakes when it comes to smaller bottles of medical products like eye drops.

“I knew I would be embarrassed and there would be stupid comments, but it was more about letting people know: keep these things separate,” she says. “It was my first time using eye drops so I didn’t think much of it, but now I keep all my medication separate.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education