General Chat

Trial date confirmed, 12 June 2017 @ Central London High Court in the Strand.

And it promises to be more entertaining than the Trump vs Clinton show



Originally scheduled for 31 January 2017, the Optical Express vs Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers Ltd) trial was delayed due to the Claimant’s reluctance to disclose information, which resulted in a Court application heard on 16 November 2016 - see history for details.

Quote from Mrs Justice Davies,
‘This is a case of such magnitude, one of its like that has not been seen in front of the libel courts for many years’ [claim value £21.5 million]

Provisionally listed for three weeks, the length of the trial is still a matter of dispute, because OE keep adding to the number of witnesses they want to call!

At the 16 November hearing Mrs Justice Davies told OE’s counsel that most of their witnesses could provide written statements, but of course the Defendants may then need to cross examine them in person, hence adding time - and yawns from the gallery, as no doubt the witnesses' evidence will be as boring as Tweedledum’s repetitive letters to damaged patients claiming that they have 20:20 vision and there’s nothing wrong with them!

Smoke and mirrors from OE methinks!

It’s obvious whose side I’m on, not least because it was me who gave the original MPlus X lens story to Observer/Guardian journalist Daniel Boffey, picked up by the Sun and Daily Mail the following day.

But I can’t take credit for this: it was entirely thanks to the selflessness of one man, who put his career on the line when he gave me this info and agreed to speak out publicly!

Whatever the outcome of the trial, the guaranteed media storm will highlight the scandal of this unregulated industry!

And it's also a chance for CEO David Moulsdale and cohorts to meet & greet many of OE's damaged patients in person!

If you plan to attend, send email for details of where to order your OERML (or other RML) T-shirt - it'll help journalists recognise possible interviewees!
info@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

Anyone that has an adverse event from refractive eye surgery, please take the time to report it to the FDA. It is for world wide reporting of bad outcomes.
www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/...=consumer.reporting1

They will not help you individually, but the total number of complaints DOES make a difference.

Make your voice heard!

Lazy journalism from Eyeworld (2015 article republished today) because of course Steve Schallhorn is now at Carl Zeiss - who choose not to mention his previous association with Optical Express, while Stevie still hasn't updated his LinkedIn page!



www.eyeworld.org/printarticle.php?id=7831

Read about the Schallhorn family's links to the FDA and AMO to understand more about the corruption within this global industry...
lasikadvisory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/is-...sing-navydod-to.html

Yesterday was David Moulsdale’s birthday, and as founder and CEO of Optical Express I thought this should not go uncelebrated by OERML!

Two years ago, on this same day, David sent a five page email to his senior staff, summarising the company's activities in 2012-13, and predicting 'substantial growth’ in 2014.







Hmmm… while clairvoyancy is obviously not one of David's talents he’s certainly an optimist!

The Scotsman, 12 January 2016:
'Healthcare entrepreneur ­David Moulsdale is eyeing a return to profit at his Optical Express empire this year – despite latest figures revealing it has continued to rack up heavy losses.

The costs involved in closing a number of underperforming stores contributed to pre-tax losses at the company behind his retail business, DCM (Optical Holdings), more than doubling to £15.4 million in the year to 27 December 2014 as sales dropped by more than £9m to £134m.

DCM said trading conditions had remained challenging in 2014, but that it had continued its investment programme with new surgery centres for laser vision correction, refractive consultation centres and optical stores.

“At the same time the directors reviewed all trading locations where the leases were approaching a break option or end of lease and either renewed on more favourable terms or closed the store where the location was not optimal for future trading and profitability,” it said.

During the year the company also disposed of its dental ­clinics, and following the financial year end a subsidiary of the company, Bridgewater Hospital (Manchester), was placed into liquidation after making heavy losses.'.
www.scotsman.com/business/companies/reta...al-express-1-3998241

In 2014 Stephanie Holloway won a landmark victory when she was awarded £569,000 (plus interest) following her highly publicised trial v Optical Express and surgeon Joanna McGraw.

Won on the grounds of lack of informed consent alone this set a legal precedent, and opened the floodgates for hundreds of similarly damaged patients to issue claims against OE and the operating surgeons.

And the damaged patients keep on coming, and will do so until long after OE shut up shop and go into administration...

That's my prediction for 2017

:blush: Right I’m booked in to have my laser eye surgery next month (Dr Mohammed Shabbar Kazmi) in Manchester I’m a little worried my eyes are not great 0-75 and 0.80 I have a few friends who have had it done and no problems at all but after doing some research and I have found websites like this
If I’m honest I would love to be able to wake up and see etc. but the question I keep asking myself is what happens if something goes wrong
Any advice would be great I’m 33 and in good health if that’s any help
________________________
admin: 'what happens if something goes wrong'? Then you will join the non exclusive club of estimated tens of thousands of people suffering with irreparable damage and side effects as a result of unnecessary eye surgery!

And, with respect, if your prescription is only -0.75/0.80, this is a small refractive error that most of us damaged patients envy!

You could of course be one of the lucky ones who has successful results (it really is luck!), but Muhammad Kazmi is personally responsible for damaging many of his patients' eyes!

Optical Express monitor my sites closely and will read this, so should you sensibly cancel and ask for your deposit to be refunded they will try to to discredit me/OERML and persuade you that Kazmi is a great surgeon and has damaged no-one... then they'll offer you another surgeon.

In the event of the above, ask OE the following questions:
1. If what I have written is untrue then why are they (and Muhammad Kazmi) not suing me for libel?
2. How many patients have been left with problems after surgery performed by Muhammad Kazmi?
3. How many people are suing Muhammad Kazmi?
4. Has the alternative surgeon they may suggest had any complaints from his/her patients?
5. Is the alternative surgeon in litigation with any of his/her patients?

I advise that you record the conversation, because they will lie!

For more info - or help chasing your deposit that OE will refuse to refund - send email with your phone number to info@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

After reading this however, the Wee Shugster (OE Group Operations Director Hugh Kerr) might authorise your refund without dispute - simply to prove me wrong!

NB: I am currently overseas but will be back in my office on 3 January

On xmas day, as I was paying for the pictured bottle of coconut fenny, a young couple came up behind me, commented that they loved fenny, and so we got into conversation...



They introduced themselves as Tom and Monika (not their real names), and told me that they were from Holland!

Although under strict instructions from my friends not to talk about eyes while I'm taking a break, how could I not tell them about the Zembla documentary!
www.npo.nl/zembla/21-12-2016/VARA_101380434

I briefly explained what it was about, told them to look at OERML for the link, and then realised that their mouths were hanging open as they looked at each other in amazement.

The reason being, Tom told me that his wife had intended to have lasik earlier in December, but had postponed because they left to travel for a few months!

Until speaking with me they had no idea of the risks, and I told Monika that I was definitely her best xmas present!

All thanks to a bottle of coconut fenny

As some of you know, I have been here since 9 December, my only break from OERML and My Beautiful Eyes since my previous visit exactly one year ago (see history).
Not previously announced because, while the cat’s away the rats do play

Although I travel with few clothes, my bag is filled with necessary eye related paraphernalia, including 6 pairs of prescription glasses, prescription swimming goggles, prescription ski goggles, Blephasteam goggles, eye mask, heat pads, Omega 3 oil, and eye drops.

When I took this photo the local people were amazed, asking if I actually use them all - I was wearing sixth pair!



Last year, after just 24hrs in Delhi, my eyes were in agony due to dust and pollution, and I suffered with such severe MGD that my eyes were almost sealed shut - hence the ski goggles this year!

Also, I had Lipiflow (£1,300) the week before I left London, which has helped enormously, but even so, the incessant smoke and ashes from funeral pyres at Varanasi’s Burning Ghat (where I visited last week) was painfully abrasive, and I left earlier than planned because of this.


www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3248208...a-reach-nirvana.html

It’s bad enough coping with post op eye problems in the UK, but I cannot imagine having to suffer these for the rest of my life in a place where pollution is so bad that it’s hard to breathe, with no access to expensive LipiFlow or NHS treatment. I truly don’t think I’d want to carry on living!

This might sound melodramatic to someone simply reading here out of interest, but believe me, in the US there have been a number of suicides recorded as a result of depression following debilitating refractive eye surgery, and I have no doubt that there have been unrecorded cases in the UK too.

I regularly counsel people who contact me desperate for help, suffering dreadful side effects and problems caused by these unnecessary and barbaric surgical procedures. So many have told me that they can’t face living like this for the rest of their lives.

According to Russell Ambrose, in 2011, when many of the problems I now live with had not presented, my operating surgeon Wilbert Hoe allegedly said that I ‘would get used to it’!!

As I have said so many times, refractive eye surgery - be it lasik, lasek, PRK, IOL, RLE/lens exchange - is NOT COSMETIC!

Like a dog, the horrific side effects and problems are not just for xmas, they’re for life!

The saga continues....
I leave a bad review on Trustpilot and OE report it. They leave a footnote asking me to contact customerfeedback@opticalexpress.com. Just had my 8th e-mail bounced back. Looks like my e-mails are directed to a non existent employee. Sent the same e-mail from my wife's account and bingo, it goes straight through. Customer Service? They have to be joking.

A very informative post from Carol Hasler on the Deposit Refund topic yesterday included this scribbled note from her intended surgeon Dimitri Kazakos.



I was surprised to discover that the website belongs to Dimitri Kazakos himself, seemingly moonlighting as a cosmetic surgeon...


Or, with so many legal claims currently in process against him, maybe he's honing up his cutting skills for the day when no UK medical insurer will indemnify him for refractive surgery!

I’d have called Dimitri to check out his prices (joking!!!) but there’re no clinic locations or phone numbers listed on his page, so perhaps OE are letting him use their premises to road test cosmetic surgery as a possible alternative to laser and lens exchange, in preparation for the guaranteed fallout after the Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers) trial next year!

I especially like the enlightening insight in this report from Marguerite McDonald, yet another (paid) member of OE’s incestuous IMAB (International Medical Advisory Board - owned and controlled by CEO David Moulsdale!)

www.opticalexpress.co.uk/the-optical-exp...-experience/surgeons

'In 1999 during the initial boom in popularity of LASIK, Marguerite B. McDonald, noted refractive surgeon and then Chief Medical Editor of EyeWorld magazine, stated in an editorial:
"We are only starting to ride the enormous growth curve of LASIK in this country. There will be more than enough surgeries for everyone to benefit if we keep our heads by sharing information openly and honestly and by resisting the temptation to criticize the work of our colleagues when we are offering a second opinion to a patient with a suboptimal result. Who was it who said, ‘When the tide comes in, all the boats in the harbor go up?’”

Exactly why it's so difficult to get honest medicolegal reports for legal claims