Texas teen suffers vision loss after using ReNu contact lens solution

Saturday, 09 September 2006

Rey Canales, a 13-year-old boy from Alice, Texas, has suffered severe damage in both eyes after using Bausch & Lomb’s ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution. His mother, Anita, says that the damage to her son’s vision left him unable to perform even the most ordinary household tasks. “He was like blinded, because we had to walk him to the restroom, we had to walk him to his room, and we had to walk him to the table to eat,” she said. Only after trips to four eye specialists did the Canales family realize that ReNu might be causing their son’s eye problems—and then stop using it. Bausch & Lomb issued a worldwide ReNu recall shortly afterward. Although Rey did not completely lose his vision, the damage done to his eyes by ReNu has made it difficult to grasp the details of what he is looking at. Canales says that the eye infection that nearly blinded her son left him in excruciating pain. The Canales family has filed a lawsuit against Bausch & Lomb, the store that sold them ReNu and an eye specialist who examined Rey. The Canales’ Bausch & Lomb lawsuit is one of hundreds that have already been filed against the company. Experts estimate that total damages for all ReNu lawsuits could exceed $1 billion.