Two more ReNu Injuries

More people continue to suffer pain and vision loss from ReNu: even after the product was recalled, it was alleged to have been sold in Wal-Mart! Here are two testamonials...


Susan Stillwell from Chicago:

Right after Christmas this year my eye turned red and really looked terrible. I waited it out but the redness and pain wouldn't go away so I went to my regular doctor. He gave me antibiotic eye drops and thought it was a fungus. Soon as I stopped using the drops, it came back in the same eye. It was so irritating that I had to stop using my contacts. Finally it began to clear up so I used my contacts that were in the ReNu solution. The pain and redness came right back. I figured out what the cause of my problem was when I saw the news. My doctor certainly wasn't aware of the problem before the news broke about the ReNu recall.

Everything is fine now but I feel really lucky that it wasn't any worse.


Bill Neeley of Niceville, Florida:

In a nutshell: My wife and I went to Wal-mart to get eye exams and they gave us new contacts. At the time we also tried out a new kind of contact lens solution to go with the extra moisture contacts we just bought that keeps your eyes from drying out. We were told not to use regular saline solution so the attendant at Wal-Mart recommended ReNu with Moisture Loc and gave us a few sample boxes. I travel a lot so while we were there I bought a two-pack. This was on a Friday.

I put the solution in the next day and my eyes started to burn. I thought I had pink eye and that is not uncommon around our house with four kids. It got worse and got into my other eye. As it got worse my eyes started to swell. I took my contacts out and put them back into the ReNu solution. Over the weekend they swelled shut completely and were bright red. I also had a headache, the whole nine yards. And my wife had the same problems.

We started using antibiotic drops but it wouldn't go away. Usually pink eye goes away within 48 hours. The following weekend it got a bit better so I put my contacts back in. Like an idiot I didn't think the contacts or solution could have been the problem.

Then I told my mother that I thought I had pink eye. She asked me if I had used ReNu as she saw somewhere in the media that it had been recalled. Then the light bulb went on! I put my contacts in regular saline solution and it took about another week before they cleared up. Since then, I have lost a tremendous amount of my night vision, I can't read as well and I definitely can't see so well. This happened a few months ago. I think I have some damage and have to go to an opthamologist. I still have the two bottles of solution and the box. And I have the sample boxes from Wal-mart.

I called Wal-mart and they said they didn't have a recall notice; only a recommendation notice. It wasn't a mandatory issue! They finally pulled ReNu off the shelf after I made the phone call. Too bad they didn't pull it off earlier. They were still handing it out after ReNu was recalled. Maybe it didn't cause permanent blindness in enough people.

Then I looked on the Internet and when I saw the information about ReNu on www.lawyersandsettlements.com I knew this product was responsible. I'm not looking for a get-rich-quick scheme but someone who puts out a product that can cause eye damage should be accountable. I may need surgery; at the very least I should go to a specialist. I have medical insurance but I think this should be a shared responsibility between Wal-Mart and ReNu. Either way, they are putting the consumer/patient in a bad position. If this had gone any further and caused me to lose any more vision, it could have been a career stopper. Then what about my family?