A California woman claiming she was injured while trying on a Victoria's Secret thong filed a lawsuit against the famous women's lingerie-maker.

According to legal papers she filed in a Los Angeles court last week, 52-year-old Macrida Patterson says she nearly lost an eye while putting on a pair of panties after a faulty staple linking the jeweled-heart adornment to the panties split and struck her in the eye.

"I was putting on my underwear from Victoria’s Secret, and the metal popped into my eye," Patterson, who appeared on Thursday's Today show with her lawyer, was quoted by MSNBC.msn.com as telling Meredith Vieira. "It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed. That’s what happened."

The plaintiff's lawyer claims that the metallic ornament should have been fixed securely to the garment, citing a "design problem" for last month's incident. The garment in question is called the "low-rise v-string," popular for not causing any panty lines, from the Victoria's Secret Sexy Little Thing line.

The mishap caused Patterson permanent damage to her cornea and she also had to skip two weeks from her job as parking enforcement officer to get treatment.

"It does seem sort of unbelievable at first," said Patterson's attorney, Jason Buccat, adding that his client's injuries will "affect her for the rest of her life."

While the lawsuit is yet to be acknowledged by the company, Buccat refused to disclose the name of Patterson's ophthalmologist. However, a New York based doctor told ABC news that even though it's hard to comment without seeing the injury, "a cornea abrasion usually clears up in a day or two."

Dogging all the questions regarding the monetary damages being sought, Buccat said the suit is not about the money but "definitely about protecting the consumer from defective products."