A St Catherine woman died early Thursday morning just days after she removed one of her eyeballs from its socket while she was a patient at the Spanish Town Hospital in the parish on Tuesday.
THE WEEKEND STAR understands that the woman was on ward five, the female medical ward, when the incident occurred sometime after midday. She was reportedly diagnosed with hypertensive emergency according to a well-placed source. Hypertensive emergency is an acute, marked elevation in blood pressure that is associated with signs of target-organ damage. A person suffering from the disease may experience various neurologic deficits, acute renal failure, aortic dissection, and eclampsia. The source also said the woman had an intraoccular pressure (build up of pressure) of the eye, which grew rapidly. The pain became unbearable which allegedly prompted her to act rashly.
"Everybody was astonished by what happened," the source said, when describing the sight of the organ on the hospital floor.
"She was determined to stop the pain that she was in, but everything happened so quickly. No one could really prevent what happened," the source continued.
The woman was transferred to the Kingston Public Hospital in order to be treated by an ophthalmologist. However, she died hours later following a prolonged period of excruciating pain.
Senior officials at both hospitals confirmed the incident when queries were made by the news team. However, they were reluctant to comment further on the matter.
When contacted by THE WEEKEND STAR for a comment, St Elizabeth-based ophthalmologist Dr Lloyd Reynolds, said he found the situation to be very strange.
"This does not sound right at all. I've never been around or heard of any patient doing that to themselves, either she is not right mentally or something. Eye can pain you but not so for you to do that to yourself, because the pain to do that is worse," Reynolds remarked.
