How much would you be willing to risk if it meant that you could stop wearing glasses?
Sure, they’re annoying and costly… and just when you think you’re all set, you get a new Rx!
But at least when you get the right pair, you can see well.
For many who have forked over a big wad of money to an eye doctor for Lasik surgery, however, being able to focus clearly is just a fuzzy memory.
Done right, Lasik reshapes your cornea with an ultraviolet laser device to correct your vision to 20/20. But like any other procedure, it also can go wrong – which can result in agonizing pain, double or even triple vision, halos around lights, and such poor nighttime eyesight that some Lasik patients don’t dare go out after dark.
But despite all of that, it’s still as popular as ever. And that’s even though it costs thousands of dollars and isn’t covered by insurance!
Now, a former FDA official who helped to get Lasik approved decades ago is leading the charge to try and have the agency warn the public about what the consequences of this operation can be.
Even better, he says he would like the FDA to ban it altogether.
So, before you even think about getting Lasik surgery, here’s what you need to know. Because as maddening as glasses or contacts can be, they won’t ruin your vision and put you in constant pain.
Hindsight is 20/20
Scott Petty had a promising future as a videogame developer and 3D artist. But at only 36, as he says, “My career is over.”
Instead of having that perfectly clear vision that Lasik doctors advertise, Petty is in constant pain, “like hot grease is in my eyes 24-7,” he says.
The Houston artist is suffering from something called “corneal ectasia,” which happened when his surgeon removed too much of the cornea during his Lasik procedure, causing it to bulge.
When that occurs, your vision can go steadily downhill — and may never come back.
That, however, is just one of the potential complications of Lasik.
Other side effects — like extremely dry eyes (which require round-the-clock drops), halos, and excessive glare — can eventually resolve months or years later, but there’s no guarantee. In fact, as many Lasik patients have belatedly discovered, such conditions often just keep on getting worse.
And while the FDA has been made aware of some of the problems Lasik patients have experienced (which are included in its adverse-event reporting system for medical devices, called MAUDE), an unknown number of others slip through the cracks.
One MAUDE report — from a doctor who opted for Lasik — describes how his vision has been steadily deteriorating for the past two years following the surgery. He’s now being considered for a corneal transplant in both eyes and says he’s “appalled” at how Lasik is advertised and thinks it “should be withdrawn.”
And of all the terrible stories of Lasik gone wrong, Max Cronin’s stands out as the most heartbreaking.
At the young age of 27, Max, a veteran who served in Iraq, killed himself — something his mother (an MD) blames directly on the side effects of Lasik surgery. She said that Max left a suicide note saying, “Doctors destroyed my eyes, and ruined my life.”
But what’s most revealing is that the biggest Lasik adversary just happens to be an individual who helped get it on the market in the first place.
Dr. Morris Waxler, a former FDA official with the division of ophthalmic devices, has tried unsuccessfully on numerous occasions to have the agency withdraw the Lasik approval, saying that problems with the procedure go back to the original clinical trials, when adverse events were hidden and underreported.
Dr. Waxler said that at the very least, the FDA needs to “warn the public that Lasik injures eyes and causes pain, vision problems, and other persistent problems that cannot be solved.”
Despite the fact that complaints about Lasik are nothing new – a decade ago, patients testified at FDA headquarters about chronic pain and failing vision – the agency hasn’t done much of anything to alert the public to those possibilities.
But now that you know, perhaps the only question you need to ask yourself is this: Are glasses or contacts such a problem that you would risk any of these complications to ditch them?
I’ll bet that if you asked any of Lasik’s walking wounded if they would do it all over again, the answer would be a resounding “NO.”
But in case you’re not sure for yourself, visit the website LasikComplications.com before committing to the surgery. One Lasik patient (who’s also a physician) says in his MAUDE report that not finding it first was the “biggest regret” of his life.
“Blurred vision, burning eyes: This is a Lasik success?” Roni Caryn Rabin, June 11, 2018, The New York Times, nytimes.com
