LONDON: A woman who sought simple treatment in a Turkish hospital has been left blind in one eye and struggling to see through the other after suffering a devastating allergic reaction to antibiotics, despite informing doctors of her allergies.
Cilem Kelleci, 31, visited doctors in Gazi State Hospital in the city of Samsun to treat a minor infection, Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper reported on Monday.
She made it clear to doctors that she is allergic to antibiotics, but says they gave them to her anyway.
A short while later, she started to suffer from a near-fatal allergic reaction. She was unable to see, and said she could feel lumps of her skin falling off.
“At one point, they told me that they were going to have to remove my right eye,” the Daily Mail reported Kelleci as saying.
She was transferred to a private hospital that demanded $12,300 to save her right eye, and said if she left it too long it would be too late.
Kelleci is now blind in her right eye and has just 20 percent usage of her left one. She said she is “terrified that I will become a prisoner of the darkness.”
She plans to sue the hospital for malpractice, but said she cannot wait until the outcome because even if she gets the money it may be too late to save her vision.
