A 20-year-old Chinese woman has suffered the early stages of severe eye disease after watching too much television, mainland media reports.
The unnamed woman from the city of Nanjing in Jiangsu province, watched 18 hour-long episodes of two South Korean television series on her electronic tablet over two days, the Nanjing newspaper Modern Express reported on Tuesday.
The marathon session triggered acute glaucoma in her eyes – a condition involving increased pressure within the eyeball, which causes gradual loss of sight.
The woman started to suffer from eye pain and headaches on Sunday and the symptoms grew worse on Monday.
She went to a local hospital later the same day and was diagnosed with acute glaucoma.
She said she had done nothing, but watch the television dramas and eat her meals during the weekend. The report did not say whether she had watched all 18 episodes without stopping for sleep.
South Korean dramas are hugely popular in China, especially among younger viewers.
One popular TV drama, My Love from the Star, in 2014, was widely watched by young Chinese audiences and sparked a craze for chicken and beer – popular with the series’ leading character – on the mainland.
The report did not say what treatment she was being given by doctors, or if they had warned her not to watch so much television.