Reply
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,880
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?

@Carmie:  Would you be a candidate for a cornea transplant?

Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,604
Registered: ‎10-25-2010

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?

@patbz  I don't know.  I never discussed it with my doctor.  I just wear that big ol' contact lens.  It smooths my cornea out so that light can refract over it and allow me to see.  I can actually see pretty good with the contact lens  in.

 

My left eye has over compensated for the right and is now 20/20.  I can also see pretty good without reading glasses for most things with my left eye too.  I occasionally need them when the print is not contrasting enough with the background color.

 

I am very fortunate that there was a doctor who believed me when I said I could not see. She is retired now, but I will never forget her.

 

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,939
Registered: ‎03-13-2010

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?

[ Edited ]

Yes, there is a facebook group LASIK Complications and the posts on there are terrible and heartbreaking. The complicaton rate is a lot higher than the doctors claim. I would never recommend the procedure to anyone I cared about. Don't let them perform "tweaks" afterwards. It only makes it worse.

Originally joined board 12-14-2004
Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,604
Registered: ‎10-25-2010

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?


@Perkup wrote:

I know there are cllinics opening for many procedures at reduced rates.  But if you need to save money do it with something other than eye surgery.  For this, get the best professionals you can find and pay what you must.  You get one set of eyes, and taking the best care of them is up to you. Get references from other doctors, and only go to someone who is 100% qualified to do this operation.  

 

 

Close relative is an eye surgeon and will not do Lasik because he refuses to "cut into healthy tissue".  I am proud of him for that.  


I used the best eye surgeon in my area.  He was my eye doctor for many years, since I was 19 years old actually.

 

There is a wait list to get in to see him.  I paid cash and it wasn't cheap...no discount.

 

He is highly recommended and many people I worked with and friends had this same surgery.  I am the only one I know who had a failed LASIK surgery.

 

I was very disappointed when he " hid" from me when he realized something was wrong.  He kept prescribing eye drops and told me I had dry eyes.  He even removed a cataract thinking that would help...it didn't.  I think he thought I was going to sue him...

I didn't.

 

I made an appointment with the second best eye doctor who headed up her own practice.  She really helped me see.

 

You just never know how things will turn out.  Not everyone is a perfect canadate for this surgery.  

 

I would never recommend this surgery to anyone.  I paid a big price financially, emotionally and physically and can't turn the clock back.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,739
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?

snip

 

Starr underwent laser eye surgery in October to correct her vision. She chronicled the treatment in Facebook posts, explaining that she’d worn contact lenses for 23 years and “had a really high script.”

But after taking four weeks off post-surgery – an unusually long recovery period – Starr briefly returned to her job and Facebook on Nov. 13, posting a video explaining her absence and saying, “I am struggling a little bit so I do still need all the prayers and well wishes.” She reported dimming vision, and said that, though her doctor explained her recovery could take up to three months, she was “trying to stay strong.” She asked viewers for tips and advice, and though visibly distressed, also spoke about the good Halloween she’d just had with her two children.

While the American Refractive Surgery Council, an organization comprised of industry representatives and medical professionals, states that “the risk of significant, sight-threatening LASIK complications is an extremely low 1 percent,” other reports suggest more troublesome results. In a New York Times article last June, the newspaper wrote of a report that found nearly “half of all people who had healthy eyes before Lasik developed visual aberrations for the first time after the procedure,” and that nearly “one-third developed dry eyes, a complication that can cause serious discomfort, for the first time.”

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,939
Registered: ‎03-13-2010

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?

[ Edited ]

No one know how torture-like it is to have painful, burning eyes 24/7. Others cannot grasp the concept unless they've actually experienced it. You use your eyes for everything! I had a chemical burn in both eyes 2 years ago and for many months I had terrible pain and burning all day long, every day. Nothing helped and the thought of living like that for the rest of my life made me actually pray for a short life. I wanted to commit suicide because of the pain, and the subsequent depression it caused. And my situation was nothing compared to what Lasik victims go through.

Originally joined board 12-14-2004
Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,505
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?

[ Edited ]

@sidsmom wrote:

If one has that much pain from a surgery & has 0% vision,

remove the eye completely.  There are many people in the

World who have had painful eye trauma & have an artificial eye

or are completely blind as an adult...but they didn’t commit suicide.  

 

Suicide is an emotional issue.

Again, I see no connection to lasik surgery. 


 

Why wouldn't her issue with unbearable pain be considered emotional?? She's in horrible pain...pain which you nor I have been in before!! Yes, it is an emotional issue!!! For you to KEEP saying "Again, I see no connection to lasik surgery." Are you an expert in this field?? Are you a psychiatrist?? A doctor?? Everyone on this forum has the right to an opinion but yours is a STUBBORN opinion and I think we've all heard your opinion enough...at least I have!!! 

 

I don't know her story so I don't know if the removal of both of her eyes would have solved her problem. I just feel horrible that this happened to her and her family!

 

To @sidsmom 

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,505
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?


@ChillyTulip wrote:

This woman had bigger issues than a Lasik gone wrong.   Looks like she had big time self-esteem issues at baseline.


 

 

@ChillyTulip... I read a comment on the first page that said she didn't have the laser surgery because she had "self-esteem issues". She had very bad eyesight and thought/hoped the lasik surgery would make her vision better...never dreaming something like this would happen!! 

 

Yes, you are entitled to your opinion as I told someone else...but you don't know if she had other issues. The type of pain she was in is none that I have ever heard about. Horrible, tortuous pain.... Poor sweet girl. 

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,200
Registered: ‎06-18-2018

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?

[ Edited ]

Unless you're a pain specialist physician or you or a loved one has suffered from intractable pain, you're probably completely ignorant about the topic, but so very fortunate.

Occasional Contributor
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎09-12-2018

Re: Poor Lasik outcome resulting in suicidal tendencies?

@sidsmom

your statements are coming across as quite ignorant.

 

Do some research. Botched Lasik surgeries can and do cause permanent and intractable pain. Pain from which there is NO RELIEF. NONE!

 

She had a career she knew was lost, and a family that she was aware she wouldn't be contributing to in any way, shape, or form anymore. 

 

It's incredibly sad and horrible that she took her life, but put yourself in her spot. What was the answer, really?

 

Her committing suicide in no way takes away from the miraculous strides done in the mental health field, daily. Apples and oranges. And to whoever said she must have been vain to not want to wear glasses? pfft and lol. 

 

Good thing we all have choice in this country. So far.