General Chat

Although STILL battling with OE I have received a refund from Hitachi for the interest free loan they provided for the surgery!

Anyone who took advantage of this finance should persevere and pester Hitachi for a refund. If in litigation I suggest you check first with your solicitor that by accepting the refund you don't eopardise your case against OE.

My refund was unprompted and transferred to my bank confirmed simultaneously with an email advising me of their decision and action.

I expect they make so much profit from OE a few refunds won't make a dent!

Yet another glowing recommendation for the laser eye surgery provided this morning by Francesca Marchetti, self employed optometrist working at a refractive eye surgery clinic - not biased then?!

More details here www.facebook.com/OpticalExpressRuinedMyLife

I recommend you email Chris Evans with the other side of the story!
chris.evans@bbc.co.uk

I have had MANY appointments and only once was asked to fill in a questionnaire as to how I rated my experience and if I would I recommend Optical Express to my friends and family. The timing was brilliant because my vision was finally coming back after another lasek and I was SO relieved after many weeks of blurry vision and did leave a positive review. However my vision went on to deteriorate again. Always thought this was cleverly timed.

An article about the safety of laser eye surgery in the Times today states that only 40% of candidates are suitable for surgery.
raconteur.net/healthcare/just-how-safe-is-laser-eye-surgery

Professor Sunil Shah was as an expert contributor.

The same Professor Shah who provided my medicolegal report without even examining me. For £1,200 he concluded that I suffered "acceptable complications" following surgery.

In my opinion he is nothing more than a hypocrite and profiteer.

I suggest complaints about the biased reporting should be addressed to the Times and Peter Archer, Managing Editor of Raconteur.net, the company responsible for the article in the supplement
peter@archerwrites.co.uk

Leo, what WAS your prescription before undergoing surgery and what is your current prescription post lens replacement?
Totally understand the problem with driving and seeing the road and sign posts ahead but not being able to see the dashboard!
Do you have halos and ghosting too?

OE have said that I can have laser or piggy-back lens. They told me that they had put in the wrong prescription lenses and made me short-sighted when I was long sighted pre surgery.

It also looks like I now have a prescription for astigmatism which I never had before!

According to OE they will be able to sort this out even though they caused it in the first place!

"With talented and experienced surgeons and field-leading innovation, it should come as no surprise to hear that more people choose Optical Express for their laser eye surgeries than any other laser eye provider - making us the smart choice for your astigmatism surgery."
www.opticalexpress.co.uk/eyecare/astigmatism.html

Leo, What 'further surgery' is being recommended?

I cannot understand, with the amount of damaged patients that OE and the like are causing, why this has not been declared a public health crisis !
People's eyes and lives are being ruined and this should be stopped IMMEDIATELY !

"Your eyesight is horrendous without your prescription(glasses)... You no longer meet the legal requirement for driving"

Observations made by the optometrist at my OE consult two days ago .

The shocking part is this was my one month check up AFTER lens replacement surgery!

I should be grateful though as they did put a prescription in my old glasses frame telling me it was "a gesture of goodwill"!! Not bad for having parted with several thousand pounds and wearing my old glasses!

I pointed out that the prescription wasn't correct as I couldn't see anything close, to which the optometrist replied, "they are only for distance, you won't be able to see the dashboard or satnav".

Well here's the dilemma: it's illegal for me to drive without glasses but if I wear them I can't see the speedometer or satnav!

I was told that I would need further surgery to correct my vision but I feel reluctant to have this done by OE.

I wonder what the "gesture of goodwill" would be if the next op failed? A white stick and guide dog perhaps?

Whilst watching "The Men Who Made us Fat" on BBC2 at 11.20 last night, a contributor made the following quote ; There is one thing the food industry is paranoid about, and that is - REGULATION !
It is pretty much certain that the laser/refractive eye surgery industry has the same view.
Regulation is coming, so get used to it eye butchers !