One woman surprised the world in 2018 when she discovered something strange was living in her eyes.

Suppose you’re going about your typical day but get an itch in your eye. When you look at your watch in the mirror, you see a worm squirming inside it. This scene seems like something out of a horror movie.

But this horror became a reality for the woman who thought her irritated eye was just a nuisance.

There was something in Abby’s eye.

Twenty-eight-year-old Abby Beckley was living her everyday life when she developed irritation and itching in her eye. The girl might have thought a poorly trimmed eyelash could cause it, but it was much worse.

According to CNN, which covered her story in 2018, it was after a trip to Alaska in 2016 that Abby’s eye condition began to worsen.

Pulling her eyelid down, she gently picked around her eye, hoping to stop the irritation. Pulling her finger out, she saw a small white worm on it. The woman was shocked and rushed to the hospital. After further tests, the doctors were confused and didn’t know what to do about the situation,” Abby explained:

‘According to them, they had never seen anything like this before…. And then I saw them moving around my eye. There were so many of them.

Infected by a unique species of worm

While not in severe pain, Abby was concerned that the worms, being so close to her brain, could get there and cause severe damage or even rob her of her vision. The doctor had difficulty finding the worms’ roots and determining how they got into her eye. Fortunately, she contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who agreed to help her.

Through much research, scientists found that Abby’s eye was infected with a unique type of worm that had never been seen in humans before, making her case a world first. Finally, a total of 14 worms were extracted from her eye. According to the Washington Post, medical parasitologist Richard Bradbury revealed that the worm species is called Thelazia gulosa:

We didn’t expect to see this species in humans.

Flies carry the worms and are usually found in cattle. A fly must have swooped down on Abby while she was outside and launched the worms into her eye.