Texas woman bought contacts from a flea market, then went blind, lawsuit says

A Lubbock woman has filed a lawsuit over contact lenses she bought at a flea market last year, alleging she went blind after using them.

Liza Garcia filed the lawsuit last week, KLBK-TV reported.

About a year ago, the lawsuit said, Garcia bought Bella cosmetic contact lenses from the One Stop Contact Lenses booth at the National Flea Market in Lubbock.

The lenses were designed to make her eyes a different color, not correct her vision.

After three days of wearing the lenses, her eyes started to burn and become swollen, according to KLBK.

She went to an emergency room, where she was diagnosed with a bacterial infection allegedly caused by the lenses. The infection left her eyes with ulcers and scar tissue, causing her to become legally blind.

Garcia’s lawsuit — which names the flea market along with the contacts’ manufacturer, Orion Vision Group Inc. — says the lenses were being sold illegally, violating Food and Drug Administration regulations.

“She lost her eyesight, she lost her job,” her attorney, Rion Sanford, told KLBK. “Obviously she’s not someone who has grown up with this disability, so she is not ready for it. She’s going to have to go through a lot of rehab. She may be helped through a lot of corneal transplants but we’re not sure.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2017 at 8:44 PM with the headline "Texas woman bought contacts from a flea market, then went blind, lawsuit says."