Hello friends,
I have previously written to Sasha about my dealings with OE and she advised me to post on this forum. I'd like to share with people a little of what I have been through so here goes:
Last December I underwent LASIK for some very mild short sightedness and astigmatism, I had no problems with either glasses or contacts before hand. I had a traumatic experience on the day of my surgery. This is one day out of your entire life that you get the procedure done, so you hope that everything is going to go smoothly. Well unfortunately for me it didn't. My surgeon was to be Mr Khalid Khan and I did as much research on him as I could before hand. I found out that he was one of the most experienced surgeons at OE and he had some nice testimonials, so I was happy to see his name on my information pack. However, at some point prior to my surgery I called the Sheffield branch to rearrange the day I was to have my surgery on. On the actually day of my surgery I was taken through to have my wavescans done, I was rather surprised that the person performing the wavescans was not the surgeon but a very young looking girl who had welcomed me when I first came in. I was already getting very unnerved at this point, then right before she took my scans she mentioned the name of another surgeon. I asked after Mr Khan and she explained that he wouldn't be performing my surgery, but instead it would be Mr Antonio Montanes. At this point I was borderline panicking and I fidgeted and blinked as she took my wavescans. After she took the scan on my right eye I asked if she wanted to do it again because I had blinked several times. She replied with something along the lines of "no it will be fine, I could see you." After this I returned to the waiting room and told my Dad that I wanted to leave. I love my Dad to bits, but in this instance, I am very regretful that he tried to reassure me that everything would be alright. I hoped to a god I don't believe in that it would be alright, and I ended up staying.
To fast forward one year later the lasting physical effects of my surgery in ascending order of severity are as follows: 20:20 vision (I had 20:15 or better before hand with my glasses,) significantly reduced night vision (halos, starbursts, and ghosting in my right eye which can also be apparent in the day time with bright objects,) and finally 2 very dark eye floaters in my right eye. I have listed eye floaters as the most symptomatic complication as I notice them almost all the day time, they are very distracting and have severely affected my self confidence and desire to do just about anything. For around 3 months I was very ill with depression and I lost a lot of weight. The stress and anxiety that they continue to bring me cannot be doing my health any good so this is why I am hoping that they can be treated. Below is my email to Sasha regarding trying to get a referral from OE to one of the only places eye floaters are treated (without vitrectomy) in the UK. Thanks for reading this so far and sorry for the huge essay.
"Hello there,
I am writing to you as unfortunately I have had a bad experience with Optical Express and the outcome of my LASIK surgery. I feel very unlucky more than anything, both with the experience that I had on the day of my surgery and with my results. However, I realise that I am not alone in having suffered under the hands of Optical Express, and so by making some contacts I am hoping to find some help and support. I won't go into the details of my story in this initial email to you but I will explain why I have eventually been compelled to get in touch.
One of my complications from the surgery is that I - like several others - have developed eye floaters after LASIK. It seems fairly logical to me that if mild head trauma can trigger eye floaters, then direct trauma to the eye (by means of a suction ring which squeezes the eyeball out of shape) could also potentially cause eye floaters. This is also the opinion of an eye floater specialist whom I visited in Altrincham by the name of Brendan Moriarty. When I finally got to speak to someone heading the clinical complaints team of Optical Express, I was asked if I had suffered a head injury, which I haven't. I was then made to feel stupid and unqualified to suggest the idea that there could be a link between the suction ring used to cut the flap and eye floaters.
To cut to the chase, the aforementioned Mr Moriarty is able to treat certain cases of eye floaters with a YAG laser and he has evaluated mine as being in a location which is safe to treat. On the advice of Mr Moriarty, I have been pursuing Optical Express for a treatment referral to the Optegra clinic in Altrincham, due to the fact that the cost of eye floater treatment is around £2000 per eye. After a very long and drawn out process with Optical Express including: emails, meetings with my surgeon where my eyes had to be dilated again, communicating with the surgery team in Sheffield and speaking with the clinical complaints team in Glasgow, I have been declined the cost of the treatment.
What makes this so much more frustrating to me is that Mr Moriarty has had several past referrals from Optimax and this is why he suggested that I chase up money from Optical Express. Furthermore, Optimax have been prompted to add eye floaters as a complication to their consent form as so many people have been complaining of them after surgery - yet, when I spoke to someone at the very top of the clinical team for Optical Express, I was fed a load of nonsense about peer reviewed studies proving no link between eye surgery and floaters. Whenever I brought up a strong and valid point such as the number of cases that Mr Moriarty has seen, I would ask the gentleman from OE how he could explain it, and each time there was a pause followed by the word 'coincidence.' What an excellent and informed comeback!
I would really appreciate it if you could give me some advice on where I can go from here? Citizens advice bureau? Could it help if I rally together some other post-LASIK floater sufferers? Do I have any legal standpoint whatsoever with Optimax offering referrals but not Optical Express?
Thank you for setting up your website and taking the time to read this email.
Regards,
David Pearson"
