--- title: 28 Year-Old Contact Lens Extracted From Woman's Eyelid description: When a U.K. woman went to the doctors with a swelling in her upper left eyelid, she didn’t expect the cause to date back 28 years. canonical: https://time.com/5370366/contact-stuck-in-eyelid/ author: Billy Perrigo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-17T15:11:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:13.608Z article:section: Health og:title: She Lost Her Contact Lens 28 Years Ago. It Was In Her Eyelid the Whole Time og:description: Doctors found it when she complained of a swollen eyelid og:url: https://time.com/5370366/contact-stuck-in-eyelid/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62335f0ee7d4292e/698937fe656a3f99d5bd53b4/screen-shot-2018-08-17-at-15-37-36.png?branch=production&width=621&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 621 og:image:height: 349 og:image:alt: Eyelid Contact Lens og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: She Lost Her Contact Lens 28 Years Ago. It Was In Her Eyelid the Whole Time twitter:description: Doctors found it when she complained of a swollen eyelid twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62335f0ee7d4292e/698937fe656a3f99d5bd53b4/screen-shot-2018-08-17-at-15-37-36.png?branch=production&width=621&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # She Lost Her Contact Lens 28 Years Ago. It Was Stuck In Her Eyelid the Whole Time > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: 7 Things You Should Never Do To Your Eyes [Watch (HLS stream): 7 Things You Should Never Do To Your Eyes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IDQ8OL5D.m3u8) (2:58)  _Published 2017-08-04. Watch the video to learn 7 things you should never do to your eyes._  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent Aug 17, 2018 3:11 PM UTC  JULY 2018 - A 28 year-old contact lens was extracted from a woman's eyelid when she complained to doctors of swelling JULY 2018 - A 28 year-old contact lens was extracted from a woman's eyelid when she complained to doctors of swelling BMJ Case Reports 2018  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent Aug 17, 2018 3:11 PM UTC When a U.K. woman went to the doctors with a swelling in her upper left [eyelid](http://time.com/tag/eye-health/), she didn’t expect the cause to date back to a [contact lens](http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2018/bcr-2018-225767.fullv) she thought fell out 28 years before. An MRI scan of the mystery lump revealed the existence of a cyst, so doctors decided to operate, according to a case study in the _British Medical Journal_ released last week. When they extracted the cyst, its outer tissue ruptured and revealed an “extremely fragile” hard contact lens, which was cracked and damaged, _BMJ_ reports. At first, the source of the lens was a mystery. But after further questioning, the patient’s mother revealed that when her daughter was 14 years old, she was hit in the left eye by a shuttle cock while playing [badminton](http://time.com/5137643/astronauts-badminton-space-iss/), the case study said. The then-teen was wearing contact lenses at the time, which she assumed fell out and was lost on impact. Her eyelid swelled up after the injury, but eventually went back to normal and the incident was forgotten. Until July, that is, when she made medical history by becoming the person to have a contact lens stuck in her eye for the longest time ever, _BMJ_ says. Doctors said they found four past cases of “lens migration” due to trauma, but none that laid dormant for as long as 28 years. One mystery remains — doctors couldn’t work out exactly why the patient’s eye became inflamed when it did, after 28 years without trouble. However, the moral of the story, doctors said, was always to look at patients’ previous trauma while making a diagnosis. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5370366/contact-stuck-in-eyelid/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5370366/contact-stuck-in-eyelid/"},"headline":"She Lost Her Contact Lens 28 Years Ago. 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