Like many parents out there, Erica Diaz is no stranger to cleaning up arts and crafts around the house.
So, when it was time to help clean up her daughter’s art project, it never occurred to Diaz that one tiny speck of glitter could have such a major impact on her life.
As she explains on Imgur, a speck of glitter ended up scratching her cornea, which caused a serious infection in her eye.
Ultimately, the infection left Diaz completely blind in one eye. Although she tried two cornea transplants, they both failed.
To make matters worse, the two failed transplants, countless injections, drops, and antibiotics put Diaz at such a high risk of a dangerous blood poisoning called sepsis that doctors had no choice but to remove that eye altogether.
For now Diaz wears a prosthetic eye, but she hopes her shocking story can serve as a warning for others to wear eye protection whenever they might need it.
"There was a chance that [a] f*cking piece of glitter in my eye could actually kill me," she wrote on Imgur. "I beg you, PLEASE wear eye protection when dealing with glitter."
On top of everything else—including losing her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes from the chemical treatments—Diaz is now battling with her insurance company.
The company claims that having her eye removed was a “cosmetic procedure,” not a medical necessity.
A family friend has since set up a Go Fund Me page for Diaz to help cover some of the mounting medical bills she’s had to put up with.
Through it all, Diaz has never lost her sense of humor and optimistic outlook on life.
"While all of that is going on, I'm still happy and living life and doing my thing," she wrote on Imgur.
