Reply: Overseas Surgery

Tweets wrote: I did a lot of research before I chose to go abroad (Prague).

Not eniugh obviously because you wouldn’t have gone to Prague

"I had tried multifocal contact lenses, but instantly could not get on with them."
Did you try trifocals before having surgery?

"After the first op and after removing the patch, I could only see mistiness, but could read words. They told me this was normal. Two days later I had the second op and again the situation was the same.”
You would risk 2nd eye after 1st no good??

"It has only been two weeks since I had the procedure done and my eyesight is far worse than ever before.
I now have to face paying £4200 to have the procedure done in UK or €1000 in Prague at the same place (+ Hotel and flights).”
Would you seriously go back to Prague???

"If my eyes had been messed up because of surgical error, I can assure you I would be suing his backside off!"
You say it was not surgical error but you are not medically trained to decide that! Nigh on impossible sueing someone in Prague from England!!

"These were all English speaking people.”
My postman speaks English but I wouldn’t let him operate on me!

"I had to trust the lenses they recommended.”
Why???

"It would not matter where I had this done, the result would have been the same. I know that now!”
You can not say the result would have been the same!!

" Like any procedure, there is always a risk.”
You said you did not got to Optical Express because you read the reviews. I don’t want to be mean and add to your upset but I am shaking my head in disbelief that you increased your the risk factor and went to Prague :pinch:

Ethnicity of the surgeon has little to do with the ability to perform any procedure or the outcome for the patient. I would even say the ability to speak English is not so important. My reservations come from adding a dimension of risk to an already hazardous procedure (performed in a distant jurisdiction guided by different parameters of patient protection, without easy access to continuity of aftercare).

Several of my relatives practice medicine ( not refractive eye surgery) in Eastern Europe and are experts in their fields. When some years ago I wanted to have dental surgery abroad, they discouraged me for those very reasons - not because they felt their local dental surgeons were unable to perform the procedure, but because of outlined added 'extras'.

I think refractive surgery is multifaceted and there are two clear threads for debate - one related to the risks of a specific elective procedure, the other to the location where it is to be performed. If safety is to be the guiding principle, one needs to seriously consider pros and cons of both threads. As refractive eye surgery is risky by its very nature, I would strongly discourage anyone from inflating that risk by having it performed abroad.

Also; I've just re-read For Pete's Sake's comments and I for one really don't think there was any racial context to it, it seemed pretty accurate to me. I think that was a straightforward misunderstanding.

And for the record, some of the smartest people I've ever had the privilege to work with have been from Romania; so damned bright they made my teeth hurt!

Well, there are good surgeons and there are bad surgeons, and location and ethnicity are pretty much irrelevant. I think morality and dedication are far more important criteria, and those are simply down to the individual. All that to one side;

I just need to emphasise yet again the fundamental difference between monofocal and multifocal / trifocal lenses. Monofocals are refractive lenses, like the ones you were born with, multi and trifocals are diffractive lenses, using a technology which is more akin to the foil-blocked hologram you see on a credit card. Monofocals are an >>entirely<< known quantity. Multi / tri's are >>not<<.

It does not matter how good your surgeon is, they simply cannot predict how you will react to the literally unnatural image presented to your retina by diffractive lenses, because the human vision system (i.e. how the image gets processed by your brain) is not yet fully understood.

If you have monofocal surgery (as in NHS) you know what you're going to get. You have multifocal / trifocal - flip a coin, because you are effectively being experimented on. As a recipient of multifocal lenses I also know the drawbacks; glares and haloes are bad to be sure, but wait until you get into lack of contrast sensitivity. Driving at night can be absolutely bloody terrifying, as one moment you can more or less see where you're going, and the next - as light levels drop below a threshold - you're damn near blind and doing 70 miles an hour. I cannot adequately describe how bad this is without extensive recourse to expletives.

When I go for explantation, which I will, I'm going to have my multifocal lenses replaced with monofocals. I don't give a stuff if I need to wear reading glasses; the irony is that if we had both gone for the basic NHS solution we would not be having this somewhat anguished conversation today.

I too am keen on astronomy and have been so since I was a child. I really want to be able to see the stars again. I'm also exceptionally good with a re-curve bow. I'm very much looking forward to polishing up that particular skill.

First of all, I do not appreciate replies which come across as racist . I have nothing against a surgeon who is Czech, Chinese, Indian or from UK. If my eyes had been messed up because of surgical error, I can assure you I would be suing his backside off! These were all English speaking people.

Not that I need to justify myself to you, but I had the procedure done as my close sight was poor and mid distance was getting worse. No, it was not a necessity, (yet), but neither is going to the doctors with a cough (which I wouldn't). I enjoy astronomy and outdoors and this was hindering my enjoyment.

I agree that these places who advertise are in it for the money. It is a business, after all. I had to trust the lenses they recommended. A bit like when he have to trust the doctor or dentist because we are not qualified to diagnose ourselves. It would not matter where I had this done, the result would have been the same. I know that now! Like any procedure, there is always a risk.

I wanted to let others know that trifocals are not for everyone and not something I would recommend, especially if you cannot get on with bifocal or multifocal contact lenses.
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admin: You posted on an open forum and cannot expect everyone to agree with you, and I see nothing that could be remotely described as racist in any of the replies to your posts.

NB: Many people 'from the UK' are from diverse ethnic groups

You have bad vision problems yet you don't doubt the Prague surgeons skills ? What on earth are you on about ? If you had a plumbing job done on a house that went wrong, would you then say you don't doubt the plumbers skills ? I think not !

The fact is that this so-called surgeon performed risky invasive surgeries on your precious eyes & fitted you with flawed trifocal lenses that he knows cause vision problems in many (I'll bet it's most) patients, and he did this purely to make even more money from you as they cost more than monofocal's, & didn't do what was best for your eyes which is nothing, unless it's medically essential !

I am also shocked to the core that you must've read on OERML about how these inherently very risky RLE ops do go catastrophically & permanently wrong for a huge number of patients, & not just OE one's, yet you chose to go off abroad to have them done to your eyes without even posting a question about doing so on this site before doing so. You would have been flooded with replies telling you not to have the ops anywhere & wouldn't now be in the awful situation that you now find yourself in !

You also say that you believe that other countries can offer far better service than the UK. Well, what evidence do you have to support that claim, because the results of your ops sure as hell don't !