Kelsey's eye kept getting worse. In October, [Mark], a trainer for Lane County Fire District 1, shared his concern with Dr. Robert Champer, an ophthalmologist and a volunteer firefighter. Champer examined [Kelsey Boren] in his office at Oregon Eye Associates and then referred her to colleague and cornea expert Dr. Richard Hoffman.

It sounds like some kind of Third World scourge. But this parasite, Acanthamoeba, lives in Oregon - including the waters of Ten Mile Lake, where Kelsey was splashed in the eye while wearing her contact lenses.

"It's highly likely" that she contracted the parasite that way, said Dr. Richard Mathers, an ophthalmologist and nationally recognized expert on Acanthamoeba who works in the cornea department of the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University.