A New Mexico woman has filed a lawsuit against Hubble Contacts, claiming that she had to have her eye removed due to defective contact lenses. Stephanie Guarisco of Clovis alleges that she experienced severe pain and injury after using the lenses for only a few weeks, ultimately resulting in the loss of her right eye. Guarisco is suing Hubble’s parent company, Vision Path, for negligence, consumer fraud, and other counts.
According to the lawsuit, Guarisco purchased Hubble contact lenses through the company’s website in early 2020. She wore the daily lenses until late July of that same year. Weeks later, she experienced severe pain in her left eye and sought medical attention. An optometrist diagnosed her with iridocyclitis, an inflamed iris condition. Guarisco was later diagnosed with a corneal ulcer in her left eye. Her eye issues continued to worsen, and she sought medical help for allergy-like symptoms in her right eye, including discharge, redness, itching, and visual disturbances. She was diagnosed with a corneal ulcer in her right eye and reported decreased vision.
Despite undergoing several surgeries in an attempt to repair the ulcer, Guarisco’s vision could not be restored. As a result, she now has a permanent prosthetic in her right eye socket. Guarisco claims that Hubble contact lenses are made using Methafilcon A, a silicone-based polymer that many optometrists consider inappropriate for making contact lenses due to its lack of oxygen supply to the eye.
While Hubble’s contact lenses are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the lawsuit alleges that Methafilcon A is an inferior material no longer prescribed for contact lenses in the United States. The complaint also accuses Vision Path of not following proper procedures for verifying customer prescriptions and paying customers for positive reviews on its website.
In response to the lawsuit, Vision Path stated that it takes the allegations seriously and has initiated an internal investigation. Vision Path is the parent company of Hubble Contacts, which sells its contact lenses online through a mail-order subscription model.
This lawsuit is not the first legal trouble for Hubble Contacts. In January 2022, Vision Path paid a $3.5 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission for various violations, including failing to obtain proper optometrist prescriptions for customers’ contact lenses. The company also paid nearly $375,000 in a settlement in Texas last June for deceptive marketing practices.
As the case is still in its early stages, Vision Path has refrained from providing further comment on the specifics of the allegations or the results of its internal investigation.