A couple of days ago a FOX meteorologist, Jessica Starr, hanged herself because of the pain following laser SMILE eye surgery.
Former FDA member Dr Morris Waxler says he knows of thousands of complaints and 17 suicides Caused by the unbearable pain these surgeries can cause when they go bad.
He believes the FDA should stop them.
Let the free market decide. If people don’t want this surgery because of potential eye strain, they won’t get it.
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I know people who have had great success with it, one who went from legally blind (without glasses) to not needing glasses at all.
I have considered it. After reading about it, I think I’ll pass.
I only recently became a candidate as the process has matured and been refined. Now I have to think about it too, dang.
For what it’s worth, I had it done several years ago and have had no problems.
I did it 16 years ago. Absolutely no regrets. I went from being near helpless at any distance over 10 feet without glasses / contacts to better than 20 / 20. While my vision has regressed after 16 years (this is expected) to approximately 20 / 25 vision its still so much better than before. Would do it again without hesitation, especially with the improvements over the last 16 years
My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones to these & other motivated suicides. No one deserves the loss of a child in particular.
Some years ago, like 10, the Boston ‘Metro’, the free paper many get before taking public transit, ran an article on this same topic. Ironically enough, the very next page had an advertisement for a clinic that performed LASIK.
I never considered refractive surgery having worked for a clinic that performed Radial Keratotomy (it’s predecessor), & seeing the shenanigans marketing people used to convince patients to undergo this procedure. What was not told to these patients was that many who got that 20/20 kept coming back for enhancements on the original procedure.
That said I would advise anyone considering LASIK to ask themselves what they hope to get out of the procedure. If it’s strictly an eyeglassectomy, they may be wasting their money as the eyes change throughout life.
But if they want some visual improvement & understood that, like my kid brother who had it & is happy with the results, they may need reading, possibly mild distance prescription, it would be best to contact a corneal specialist who does other procedures & avoids advertising. JMNSHO
I was about 32 when I got my LASIK. They told me that if I had it I’d absolutely need reading glasses by age 40 as this was a known side effect of the surgery. I went ahead with it anyway. Now as I near age 50 I still can read just fine without reading glasses. I have gone back to wearing correction for driving purposes or when I need to see long distance but the rest time I go without. Interestingly when wearing glasses / contacts for driving is the only time I struggle to read as they mess up my vision up close. My eye doctor says its because I was originally near sighted and my eyes are trying to regress to that which keeps me being able to see up close while I slowly lose distance vision. Its a very slow regression back to what I used to be though and I likely will never regress all the way. No regrets.
Hospitals kill over 250,000 people in accidents…
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True and I stay away from them.
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I had it at the same time I had my cateract surgery to correct my astigmatism. It was done by my ophthalmologist and covered 100% by my insurance. I now have perfect 20/20 in my distance eye.
Are you certain that’s what it was?
I had always been extremely nearsighted. I had cataract surgery and it corrected me to 20/20 by itself. To may knowledge, there was no LASIK involved.
Cataract surgery replaces the clouded lens with an implanted plastic lens.
Maybe it’s not called lasik surgery but it’s different than regular cataract surgery.
“In modern cataract surgery, your cataract surgeon can also correct your nearsightedness, farsightedness and/or astigmatism with the use of a premium intraocular lens (IOL) customized to correct your specific refractive errors and reduce or eliminate your need for eyeglasses after surgery.
This advanced type of cataract surgery sometimes is called refractive cataract surgery.”
Is it possible the patients who had eye pain to the point they ended their own lives may have been poor candidates for the procedure from the beginning? Specifically due to dry eyes?
Having taken the time to do an online quiz to see how likely a candidate I’d be, that site red flagged me in part due to dry eyes (require drops twice daily & cannot get a soft or RGP fitting). Would be an even less likely candidate now due to other problems.
Is it possible these candidates should have been turned down? Or that they selected surgeons who were relatively new to the procedure? A more experienced surgeon may accept higher risk candidates the newer ones may reject.
It’s certainly possible.
This site is full of information about it:
It has one section with testimonials by physicians who have had the procedure done on themselves and have had major problems with it.
I had lasik 10 years ago, it changed my life for the better. Maybe she suffered from something else or I just got lucky? The pain was nothing they just offered me a Xanax pre op, it burned for a few days but then everything was better plus I went from 20/200 in one eye and 20/400 in the other to 20/20 vision. That’s interesting.
Interesting article.
As I’ve said, I’m already stuck with dry eyes & double vision from a neurologic cause, so won’t be considering it.
Interesting some of the complications mentioned as I had seen a few in the RK clinic. One lady was in & out of there for the Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP) lenses she wanted when her surgery didn’t go so well, & I get the feeling her fitting was difficult.
Another patient we had to schedule a cataract procedure. However, that doctor was flexible about doing either both eyes at a time or one eye at a time, depending on Rx strength. It’s a shame most LASIK physicians offer only both at the same time.
I had no idea something like this would happen but i know how painful it is when your eye is scratched. I wasnt eligible for lasik.
Yet we have people who still want those exact entities being left to the free market.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
