A Lasik Surgery Nightmare - Personal Injury Lawyer Victim Speaks Out
Recently I reviewed a story attesting to horrific permanent vision problems after a Lasik procedure and it highlighted that many side effects continue to plague patients, prompting an FDA investigation. Unfortunately, I have my own sad tale to tell. Approximately 7 or 8 years ago, I went to a well known Lasik center in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and had decided to have Lasik surgery. I was extraordinarily nearsighted. I had problems after the first surgery so I was told to have a second revision Lasik surgery. After the second Lasik surgery, I could not see at all and literally felt I was going blind to the point where I sought immediate attention from a renowned academic ophthalmology expert and got on a plane and flew to a well known ophthalmologist and Professor of Corneal Medicine expert at Massachusetts Ear and Eye in Boston, MA.
The doctor agreed to see me and abruptly canceled his scheduled vacation plans and told me that I needed emergency surgery. I was in danger of losing my eyesight. He further informed me that I was never a proper candidate for Lasik surgery. I required two emergency surgeries and began a weekly commute back and forth from Philadelphia to Boston and sought a corneal retinal specialist to monitor my care in Philadelphia at Wills Eye Hospital. I became very well acquainted with the risks of Lasik surgery and also came to learn that there are many patients receiving the surgery that are not proper candidates for the procedure to begin with. In fact, many of the doctors are putting profits over patient safety.
According to the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, approximately 14 million people have had the surgery since the first lasers were approved by the FDA in 1998. This business is a 2.5 billion industry and last year Consumer Reports Health released a survey indicating that 55% of Americans who have had laser vision correction surgery are still wearing glasses or contacts some of the time, 53% experience at least one side effect within the first four weeks of surgery, and 22% of the patients experience them 6 months post-surgery. Frankly, I would never have had the Lasik surgery had I been aware of all the risks, and I recommend that any patient get a number of opinions from qualified ophthalmologists and corneal specialists rather than just going into a Lasik center where salesmanship often comes at a price.
Some experts believe that the FDA should have taken more care when the lasers were first approved in 1998. According to Morris Wexler, former branch chief of FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health Office of Science and Technology, “We screwed up. You know how some drugs have a black box warning – it’s dangerous because of this and this - we could have done something comparable to that. We should have looked at the worst case scenario impact on patients rather than just the very good outcomes we saw in the clinical trials.”
If you or a loved one has suffered complications from Lasik surgery, contact a lawyer who is experienced who these problems first hand and is all too familiar with this critical situation. The medical malpractice lawyers at Reiff and Bily have had experience with defective Lasik procedures.
