TOPIC: Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE/NLR)

Hi vma1977 I suffered retina detachment recently too all because of the lying and incompetent staff at Optical Express. They ignored all warnings about my eyes to get me to pay my money for surgeries. Anyone reading this please save your eyes don't go near them and get lured by their lying sales pitches by medical staff and optoms.

I am still struggling with the state of my eyesight because nothing can be done to stabilise it or reduce negative effects of their “state of the art” sh*t lens they put in .

They claim they are world leading eye experts but honestly don't have a clue when things go wrong, they don't care about checking for anything .They fool you into thinking the lenses will fix everything . and never tell you about any risks - nothing to do with training, they ignore it all deliberately then wave a consent form at you when things go wrong. Unscrupulous ruthless money grabbing bastards the lot of them who would sell their own mothers.

Scary so many poor victims suffering Retinal Detachments and other serious problems caused by these fraudsters.

Hi, I have just come across your website and would like to ask for some advice.

I had cataract surgery and lens replacement surgery in October 2019, having been told I was an ideal candidate ( usual sales patter I have since found out !)
One month after surgery I began to get notice floaters and flashes in my right eye, to which I notified Optical express immediately and travelled to see them 3 times in one week. On the last appointment (a Thursday) I still had the symptoms but was told there was nothing wrong and sent home.
Two days later I awoke to very limited vision in my right eye, having seen Optical Express so many times I felt that this was perhaps a normal occurrence and I did not contact them until the Monday when I was quite distressed that my vision was still severely impaired and upon seeing them on that day them I was told that I have a retinal detachment and should go directly to hospital.

I saw the surgeon at Ipswich Hospital on Tuesday the 12th of November and had surgery on the 15th.

I had an Off Macular Detachment and am now living with limited sight in one eye and the strains that this puts on my standard of living.

Optical Express feel that as I signed all the forms they are not liable!

I would be grateful for any advise you may have, and while I am not really looking to make money I feel that having paid over £7000 I deserve better treatment than this.

If the only thing to come out of this is that their staff get better training to look for potential retinal tears to help avoid further instances such as mine that will be a positive.
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Hi to everyone just an update on my last post, I had both eyes cataract surgery done in May 2019 by Dr Dimitris Kazakos. Following day complained left eye was not clear, they just said takes time, and at all aftercare appointments I kept saying left eye no good, double vision, blurred etc, but they said just keep taking drops.
I got fed up of this and started complaining to Stephen Hannan by emails and was still waiting for a reply. then posted on here - and wow and behold, phone calls and an email saying sorry for the no reply from a manager. Nothing about why I'm complaining, my aftercare ceased when I started complaining and I've had none since Oct.
I then returned call from them asking me to schedule my in for corrective lasik in Glasgow on Jan 6 2020 as they don't do Inverness anymore (more cost to me by the way) and told David Teenan would call 31st Dec. He did call for 5 mins to which was said how was the contact lens we fitted to see if that made a difference, I said the first one I couldn't see a thing the second I could but still blurred and double vision, he then said we'll if that wasn't good pointless having surgery and postponed surgery on 6th Jan.
I pointed out that no one has looked at my dodgy eye which was fine before surgery since Oct, response was he’d get someone to call me and get me in for a look, don't know if he was getting his mum or a neighbour to call me, and will never know as I'm still waiting!
This has been the biggest mistake of my life letting Optical Express and their surgeon to touch my eyes because it’s only about the money!
If only I knew then what I've found out now, about the lawsuits, the damage they have done to thousands of people, the nepotism, corruption, all this available on the internet.
Let’s see what happens next.
Steve

Very interesting perspective of a man in the USA. Also read in the comments section a post by an experienced surgeon.

Hi, I had cataract surgery to both eyes on the same day at 200 St Vincent Street in Glasgow on May 30th 2019
The next day I told them my left eye was not right as blurry and outline vision that's when all the guff started and stall tactics they use at Optical Express.
Non stop appointments, told to keep using drops, wash your eyes in hot water, squeeze your lids - even got 2 different contact lens for left eye and both were so bad I couldn't see out of them!
I have sent Stephen Hannan several emails asking to see the surgeon Dimitris Kazakos but they keep stalling so that the 12 month aftercare will end and you are stuck.
The last one to Stephen Hannan told him that I didn’t get an appointment to see Dimitris Kazakos I would complain to the GMC.

"Dear Mr Hannan,
I have asked to see the surgeon who operated on me and who should have examined me when he was told I had problems after my surgeries.
I am now lodging my written complaint about Dr Dimitris Kazakos with the General Medical Council.
Yours sincerely
Steven Johnson”

No reply from Stephen Hannan but I received an email from someone else asking me to give them details about my complaint about Kazakos, yet in all 3 emails I have received not one time has anyone asked me what is wrong with my eyes lol!



They are only interested in the money and my eyes are worse now than they were before. I have contacted the GMC with a complaint against the surgeon and have been advised to complain to the the GOC about Optical Express so we will see where that goes.

Steve Johnson

Two years ago today I walked into Optical Express at 200 St. Vincent Street in Glasgow to have lens replacement surgery to change my life. It certainly did. Not a day goes past that I don’t regret it. I’m angry - I’m angry that I let these ‘medical professionals’ persuade me that I was doing the best thing ever. They are in a position of trust and I trusted them that they were out to do their best for me but all they were out to do was line their pockets and get their bonuses. They have no morals and they really are the lowest of the low knowing the harm that they’re doing. They don’t care. I couldn’t sleep at night if I knew I was ruining people’s eyes and their lives the way they’re doing. I get so annoyed with myself that I was so trusting and gullible, just because I’m an honest person I fell for their sales pitch. They are worse than timeshare touts! There’s no turning back from this awful procedure. It’s the worst decision ever and I have to live with this for the rest of my life. Shame on you Optical Express and all the other unscrupulous eye surgery clinics.

Hi I’m not sure where to post this tbh so apologies!*
I’m obviously not happy with the surgery or aftercare I’ve had from Optical Express otherwise I would not be here! (I have told them in several surveys that I am very dissatisfied and would not recommend them and my eyes are worse than before the op)
I had my surgery in June this year and I am still no better than the day after surgery tbh and certainly worse than before the op!
I had the lens replacement done and although I was made aware of many complications and signed my initials against a lot of them I don’t recall a section that mentions ‘left over prescription’ (which the optometrists keep saying but no one can tell me what it is or means) nor one that says this surgery could impact your life very significantly reducing hours at work stopping hobbies etc
I have been pushed around really and I keep getting told that I am not adapting well and that every time I visit there is a slight improvement which I do not notice if I’m honest, my latest visit today went the same way as all the others the same tests the same standard answers and now they want to send me to London again, I live in Norwich so not ideal to meet the surgeon to discuss the options available to me!
I have been told they can do laser eye surgery to correct the issues I have but I’m very reluctant to go through with this as it may complicate further can anyone offer advice please as I don’t really believe anything they tell me atm it feels as though I have the wrong lens in my eyes and I now have gone back to wearing glasses which they provided a couple of weeks ago due to the constant headaches and impact it has on me!
I really don’t know what to believe and just want my eyes to work how I was almost convinced they would work prior to the op! Does this warrant at the very least my money back! Please help and thanks in advance. Fridge
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*Sorted

Re, refractive lens exchange, on 30/07/2019, @ Chelmsford - is this standard treatment?????

I write this as to express my dis-satisfaction with regard to the operation I underwent 30 July 19, the more time I have to reflect on the experience the more I realise how unprofessionally I have been treated,
My whole journey began with me researching ‘RLE’ after my sister and several friends had the operation most with optical express, my wife’s cousin with [admin edit], and a friend who travelled to [admin edit] last year. I soon come to the conclusion that the best option for me was with optical express, with your world class cutting edge technology, best in the country etc.
By far the biggest concern for me is the operation its self, which all through my research and leading to my consultation at the lakeside store I have been reassured the latest, safest technology and the highest standards are what I should expect from optical express. One process specifically identified as the cutting edge was the fact that optical express had the latest laser cutting technology for precision cutting of the eye and to remove the original lens, to carry out the surgery, I was reassured it was latest procedure offering the best outcome, minimising recovery time and ensuring the safest option in the world.

On the 30th I arrived at the Chelmsford surgery as arranged, obviously nervous , I was taken through all of the pre op tests and waited for the operation, it wasn’t until just prior to this, after I had all of the tests, eye drops in to dilate my eyes, I had the numbers 1 & 2 drawn on my face and lines drawn on my eyes them self, I had the gown on the hair net and foot slippers. Literally just prior to the operation that I was told the surgeon had decided to carry out the operation under knife not the state of the art precision laser I had been sold the procedure around. I feel that having this sprung upon me at this stage is unacceptable as I was at my most vulnerable and had I been given time to absorb the change to the operation I would have reconsidered,
As a result of this my right eye is almost showing no effect however my left eye is severely bruised and totally blood coloured and painful in comparison, incomparable to my right eye , I believe this is directly due to the method of using a knife to open and remove the lens. On returning to the surgery the next day and speaking to the staff I was informed that it was due to the laser not being available for use, as it wasn’t working, talking to other patients from the day before who had the same issue I noticed that all of us had considerable damage to the left eye, again a direct effect from the outdated method of surgery used on us.

On my way home I asked my wife to call optical express to enquire about the lens surgery and the method surgeon’s use, she was told, all optical express surgeons use lasers for the operation and not the knife method. And the irony listening to the recorded message whilst waiting for a response on the phone explaining how optical express have invested 400 million in the latest world leading technology, Had I been told at consultation that there was any possibility that the operation would be done under knife I would not have booked, as I said the operation was my biggest concern?, this is Not what I paid £6000 for. I feel like I have been miss-sold what should have been a world class operation but instead received a third world operation.
Very unimpressed Leon Lloyd.

Hi, I had RLE in 2013, sued OE, won, kinda (they would disagree but WTF, they paid for their surgeon's costs and a number of other things and they looked really moronically stupid, greedy and downright evil at the cost hearing, but anyway). I've had lens exchange for monofocal lenses this year (Moorfields, first one went well then I tore my retina, had the second eye done and the prescription was a long way out, getting that fixed (hopefully) later this year) Anyway.
At my first trip to Moorfields I got in to a 'discussion' with Vincenzo Maurino on the subject of Lentis M-Plus MF-IOLs, and this discussion has been bothering me for almost a year now. We were so at odds on the subject of MF-IOLs we could have been talking about entirely different things. I was, frankly, incredulous at his assertions, but even more incredulous at the fact he plainly believed them, and I have to accept that he did so in good faith. So - what's going on?
I started reading some articles in a US journal on 'refractive surprises' (because i have one, apparently) and one, in particular, caught my eye. www.reviewofophthalmology.com/article/re...ter-cataract-surgery
The quote that got my attention was this one, from a surgeon on some of the issues with MF-IOLs / RLE:
'He does not believe in waiting for neuroadaptation in premium lens patients. “I think we are dealing with a deformed lens in most cases,” he says. “Sometimes, you have to wait for the lens to regain its shape once it is placed in the eye. If you wait long enough on a multifocal patient who is complaining of waxy vision, he or she often will slowly get better. People call that neuroadaptation, but what has really happened is that the lens has slowly regained its factory-manufactured shape. With waxy vision, I wait to see if it gets better because if it doesn’t, I’m not going to do PRK or LASIK. Instead, I’m going to take that lens out.”
Of course, for some of us that just doesn't happen. The description struck me as apt though, because of the complexity of shape of the profile a multi-focal lens.
Cutting to the chase: is the real issue for us damaged RLE patients that either manufacturing defects in multi-focal lenses are unacceptably high or that these lenses are damaged in transit to point of implant? Because some people do in fact seem perfectly happy with MF-IOLs. And to say that others just don't get used to them is a lazy and content-free response. I do not believe the surgeon would be able to tell in advance that a lens is damaged without performing some examination that would presumably compromise sterility (somebody help me out here please).
Does anyone have or know anyone who has information on manufacturing failure rates of MF-IOLs? (Sasha?) I'd be very interested to know. Thanks.

Hi,

An eye test at the beginning of last year revealed that I had early stage cataracts and I was advised that if I wanted it sorted out I'd have to get it done privately as the NHS wouldn't do anything until my vision was affected. So I ended up having lens replacement surgery with OE, who informed me that not only would this resolve my issue of the cataracts getting worse, but I also wouldn't need to use reading glasses anymore. A win win I thought. I should just say, that I didn't need glasses for anything else - my long sight was better than 20/20.

Mfazo Hove carried out the procedure at OE's Westfield, London clinic on the 22/23 July 2018, is cost me £6k and I've have had nothing but problems. I have negative dysphotopsia in both eyes and slightly different vision in each eye. I'm unable to drive at night as I experience halos and all the road signs are a complete blur. I'm unable to read if the ambient lighting is not perfect - for example fluorescent lighting in a shop means I'm unable to read small print. My eyesight has affected my balance - I have severe vertigo and dizzy spells which only started after the op. I have had a MRI scan on my brain and ear canals to rule out anything else and have had repeated trips to the GP who is trying me on various different tablets to control the vertigo. I also fell down the stairs in January and broke both of my wrists - this was caused by the vertigo. I have an appointment with an ENT balance clinic in August to try and resolve the issues.

I have to say that the whole thing with the eyesight and vertigo has been devastating. I avoid going out because of the balance and it has caused me to suffer with anxiety - something I've never had previously.

I have been to repeated check ups with OE who check my eyes and have repeatedly told me to wait and see if it improves. I was initially told they couldn't do anything for 3 months as they had to wait for the healing process to complete. I understand/accept this, but I am still waiting for them to make up their minds. I had a surgeons review with Dimitris Kazakos on 5th June and he recommended the lenses are swapped for monococals - which means I'll be back to needing reading glasses. Apparently my brain hasn't accepted the new lenses.

My concerns relate to having a further procedure and will it resolve the issues, and also the 12 months aftercare. I have asked that this be extended, but they are really dragging their feet. I feel like they have my money and now they really couldn't care less and are just waiting for the 12months to pass.

If you're considering having this surgery as glasses seem like too much trouble, think again. This has been the worst decision of my life and I feel completely devastated by the outcome.