Where's Good For Multifocal Lens, Liverpool ?

My first contact with Optical Express was in April 2012. The RLE was done by Prof Venter in November 2012. Surgery went OK but needed an ‘enhancement’. This was performed by Mr Manek Patel on 10/12/12, who was rude, rough and surly.

I attended the usual check ups and I eventually attended laser clinic for treatment on 6/4/13, waited nervously for hours, only to be told by the surgeon he was not willing to do it. He said he was not happy with the treatment planned and wanted me to try a different prescription. Alas, no notes had been made on their computers as to the lenses I had been using or tried so lens after lens were trialled even though I could tell immediately they were no good until on 24/7/13 the best one was found. More delays to laser treatment followed.

0/10/13 I again attended laser clinic for treatment by Mr Jonathan Carr who had assured me he would carry out the procedure. After more hours of waiting I was called in to see the surgeon who turned out to be Mr Stefen Klopper not Mr Carr as expected, he told me that they were unwilling to perform laser treatment on my left eye and I was then referred to Prof Venter for other options. He said my best treatment was to have a ‘piggy back lens which he assured me was a simple operation which he had performed countless times and only took a day to recover and if I didn’t get on with it then it was easily reversible.
I trusted him.

29/1/14 I attended their Westfield store for the op. He said it went well and I was given some drops and sent home. I hadn’t got far when I got a phone call saying come back immediately as they had forgotten to give me pills to keep the pressure down. We went straight back and got them then continued our journey home. I took the pills.

I felt fine until about 9.45 pm when I got a slight headache and went to bed. Overnight I was violently sick continuously, nothing on their post op info relating to this, so I presumed it was food poisoning.
I was due to go for my 24 hr check up the next day but was still being sick so phoned Harley St to tell them, they didn’t answer and the call was forwarded to HO. I explained to them that I had been vomiting all night and still was and I thought it must be food poisoning, so I could not attend my check up.

This rang no alarm bells with them and he just said ‘its important you attend as soon as you feel well enough’, which I said I would. The next day 31/1/14, we managed to get to Harley St using a taxi, where I was taken for pressure check and then for a sight check. I couldn’t even see the giant letters or how many fingers she was holding up.

She called a surgeon in and he said the pressure was too high to register on the ‘puff’ test and gave me some pills and sent me home.

At approx. 6.15pm my mobile rang, it was Prof Venter, he said I needed to go to Westfield immediately and he would hold the operating team there until I arrived. I had no choice but to get out of bed and go, I was very concerned.

After a nightmare journey we arrived there, Prof Venter checked my eye pressure which was 56 IOP. I was put on a saline drip to rehydrate. Prof Venter decided to punch holes in my iris to lower the pressure, I was so weak I could hardly keep upright. He did that and I returned the next morning when the Prof examined my eye and said they must get the pressure down more before taking out the piggy back lens. They set up another drip and I sat there shivering with my head in my hands feeling dreadful.

He took out the lens and I went home.

After 6 more visits to see Prof Venter I told him I had noticed I was seeing wavy lines and expressed my concern. No iris was visible still.

6/2/14 back to Harley St, Prof said eye looked healthy and was improving, told me to keep taking the pills and using the drops which I have done religiously throughout. He told me the iris would take months to come back if ever, but if it didn’t come back he could make a fake iris. More worry. I asked why the wavy lines and was told it may be the enlarged pupil

17/6/14 Harley St, IOP16. Eye test according to Prof is 20/20 with most suitable prescription whatever that is.

18/8/14 IOP 19 so OK. Prof says eye has not changed at all this time and he can do no more except try to correct the astigmatism by laser procedure, he has done it lots of times and can do it tomorrow at 8.00am if I like, no recovery time. He also said the right eye which had the RLE is showing signs of slight clouding on the back, this happens to 20 o/o of patients, and it will need a YAG laser treatment when it gets worse. All perfectly normal and run of the mill for him. But I am not willing to chance any more treatment from them as I have lost all trust.
I sent him and HO a list of questions. HO promised a reply in 10 days but have not responded.

I am left with a fixed iris, wavy lines in my vision and poor vision in dark and bright light. I have no further appointments.
Wendy

I did have cataracts in both eyes according to Jan Venter, but when I purchased my notes from Optical Express there is no mention of it in the records.

I presume Dr Venter said it to justify butchering my eyes!

Thanks to everyone who emailed me offering to speak to the press about their RLE problems!

I am virtually glued to my computer (and 3 phones!) for most of my waking hours, and even if there were 48hrs in a day it still wouldn't be enough time for me, so if I don't answer each of you personally please don't be offended!

The journalist on this occasion only wanted three people, and he will contact his choices next week.

However, with the flood gates open at last - and the press finally realising that the problems with RLE surgery are as serious as with laser, I am sure there will be plenty more opportunities very soon.

With that in mind, to save me time, I am now compiling a list of people willing to talk to the press. That includes RLE and laser damaged patients.

If you haven't already told me so, please send an email and I'll add your name to the list.

Meanwhile, for latest updates, please keep checking here: www.facebook.com/OpticalExpressRuinedMyLife

Tick tock...

Anyone willing to talk to press (with photo) about their RLE experience please contact me asap!

admin@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

My wife has always had good eye sight, never needing prescription glasses. In recent years, her short term vision deteriorated requiring her to use 'off the shelf' glasses for reading.

At the age of of 47, after an initial consultation with Optical Express in Harley Street my wife was strongly advised to have bi-focal lens replacement. We were told that this surgery had more than 90% success rate and would mean she would never have cataracts. We were also told that this type of bi-focal lens reduces the amount of light into the eye, and although there was an insignificant risk it may cause problems glaring headlights when driving at night, this usually improves after a few months. Considering such a positive consultation with an extremely high success rate claimed, it was very easy to buy in to refractive lens exchange surgery.

My wife had bi-focal lens replacement surgery in 2012, performed by Dimitris Kazakos, and her eyesight is in a worse condition than before. Her near vision is blurred and she still requires glasses to read. She also has glare in fluorescent lighting conditions. She is unable to drive at night because she can hardly see and is severely effected by the glare and halo effect of on coming headlights. Her eyes are continually dry and sore.

Since the surgery, we have allowed plenty of time to see if my wife’s condition improves as Optical Express keep assuring her it will! This has involved several consultations in Harley Street and appointments at Optical Express in Milton Keynes.

Our complaint is:

1. My wife’s eyes are in a worse condition than that prior to surgery and she still requires glasses to read.

2. This has cost a lot of time, travel, days off work for appointments and several thousand pounds.

3. Some of the staff at Harley Street have been quite rude and dismissive. We feel that they do not really care about us now they have our money.

As for legal action, I imagine they have covered themselves in the small print my wife signed. Morally speaking, at the very least we deserve a full refund.

We have a consultation on Monday with the surgeon who undertook the operation and would appreciate any advice for that meeting. Optical Express sold my wife what they described as a great product with a high success rate, which has worsened her eye sight.

Shabir, now I recognise you from the Which? conversation; 99% success rate again! This means NOTHING! Can we trust the statistics quoted by Optical Express. It would be very interesting to see the break down of statistics for patients with cataract and those without and also those by patient age group and type of lens implants. Meaningful statistics need to be made available. We all accept that undergoing a surgical procedure we might be unlucky enough to suffer complications but we need to be told the truth beforehand. A company that uses non disclosure clauses to hide poor outcomes and complications is overdue to have regulation enforced upon them.

I am pleased to hear Dr Venter is advising a second opinion and hope that Stephen Hannan arranges this for you without delay.

Robin wrote: Shabir, what is your own personal experience can I ask?

I was an innocent passerby, with perfect eyesight save for a small prescription easily corrected with multifocal glasses, who happened to walk into Optical Express.

Thanks to their sales pressure and lies I was sold a lifetime promise to be free of glasses, with an added bonus, a future free of the risk of developing cataracts.

I am a carer for 2 profoundly disabled sons, both who are congenitally blind. From the outset I adamantly explained to both OE's sales people AND surgeon Dimitri Kazakos, that I could not risk my sight being damaged in any way as my sons depend on my eyes too.

They assured me there was no need to worry as it is a very safe and successful procedure.

Both my eyes are now compromised with short sight, poor intermediate and very poor long sight. It is over 6 months since I had my perfect natural lens replaced with their plastic lens and have suffered all the effects of astigmatism, blurry images, black spots, painful and dry eyes, and starbursts the size of Greek water melons.

OE have shunted me from one test to other with no genuine interest in resolving the problems, until this week when I met Dr Venter and he agreed that Opical Express should pay for me to see an independent specialist of my choice.

I am now awaiting for Stephen Hannan at Head Office to confirm this. Still a long way to go yet but it looks like doom and misery so far as my eyesight is concerned.

THESE ARE CALLOUS AND GREEDY PEOPLE AND THEY SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE.

Shabir, I completely agree with your scepticism.

I think the government needs to urgently and retrospectively collect data of success/ failure rates of Refractive lens Exchange being carried out where there is no cataract present. Optical Express were only willing to help me when I needed vitrectomy if I signed a non disclosure clause! What does this indicate?

Shabir, what is your own personal experience can I ask?

I would like to get an idea of the numbers (percentages) of failures with this surgery as OE's 'top' surgeon Dr Jan Venter claims 99% patients have either no ill effects after surgery, or, they're minor enough to be satisfactorily corrected.

I do not believe this claim and would appreciate it if you would please let me know your experiences and thoughts on how to get a better measure of this problem.

What Optical Express do not tell people is that RLE is cataract surgery. I did not have cataracts before surgery, did you?

To be clear, BUPA covered my vitrectomy - not the enhancement laser to my right eye. The highly respected surgeon who carried this out for me (at my husband's expense) told me "it would have been madness" to retreat my other eye and that Optical Express "couldn't see the wood for the trees".

Says it all really.

My OE surgeon, clearly unhappy (telling me that it actually could make things worse) was going to undertake this further treatment to my left eye "if I decided to go ahead"??!!