This story contains images that may be disturbing to some.

A US woman complaining of eye discomfort was found to have 23 contact lenses embedded in her right upper eyelid.

Contacts removed from patients eye in California. (Source: Instagram/California_eye_associates)

Californian-based ophthalmologist, Dr Katerina Kurteeva, described the patient’s ordeal last month in a video that has now gone viral with millions of views.

She told Insider that in her 20 years as a doctor, she'd never seen anything like it.

"Toward the end of the day, a patient in her mid-70s who wore daily contact lenses came in saying she felt she had something in her eye that she couldn't get out.

"Even though we ask seniors to come in once a year for checkups, this woman had skipped appointments and hadn't been to the office in two years. Although her vision was blurry, it was the pain that bothered her most.

"My mind jumped to the possibilities of what it could be: a piece of broken contact lens, a scratch on the cornea, an infection, an eyelash, or debris from makeup. I'd only know for sure once I did the examination."

And what she found could only be seen to be believed.

A post shared by Ophthalmologist | Dr. Katerina Kurteeva M.D. | Newport Beach (@california_eye_associates)

"So today I have encountered my very first patient with multiple retained contact lenses," Kurteeva said. "Previously I have only read about it in books."

Posting on the California Eye Associates Instagram page, she said the patient’s contacts lenses were essentially "glued" together and had been sitting under the eyelid for about a month.

"The only complaint she had was that for one week she felt there was something in her eye," Kurteeva said.

A total of 23 contact lenses were removed from the woman's right upper lid and one from her left.

"Laying out the contacts on a tissue, I separated each one with fine-tip forceps and counted 23 contact lenses. Some of them were yellow and some light blue, because while the natural color of a contact lens is light blue, the stain I put in her eyes to examine had colored some of the lenses yellow."

Kurteeva said the patient couldn't believe it either "and asked if I was sure about the number I was counting".

"After we had removed the biggest blob, we retrieved a few more from the corners, carefully flushed her eye out with distilled, sterile water, removed some of the mucous, and sent her home with anti-inflammatory drops. She said she felt much better already."

The harrowing removal was done with a lid speculum to keep the patient’s eyelids open due to the contact lenses embedded in the right upper lid.

Kurteeva used a cotton bud to scrape out the lenses of the reddened eye, carefully separating them as she went.

"Don’t ever sleep in your contacts! They can get trapped under your upper eyelid and cause severe eye infection," she said.