Published in the New York Times yesterday
'
Dr. Cynthia MacKay, one of the few ophthalmologists who has spoken out against the procedure, said the surgery can injure the eye because it severs tiny corneal nerves, thins the cornea and makes it weaker, and permanently alters the shape of the eye.
She said after Lasik, all people lose contrast sensitivity, the ability to distinguish between shades of gray, to some degree. It is an elective procedure, she emphasized, that does not provide any benefits that cannot be obtained with glasses or contact lenses.
“There is nothing wrong with eyes that undergo Lasik except for the fact that they need glasses for distance,” Dr. MacKay said. “They see well before the procedure and ought to see equally well after the procedure. But they don’t.”'
www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/well/lasik-complications-vision.html
I corresponded with Dr Cynthia Mackay last year, when she told me that she was working with a NYT journalist trying to expose this scandal, and it's great news that Rona Caryn Rabin succeeded in getting her article to print - for all of us worldwide!
'
Lack of precise information about complications is a problem that plagues many medical devices, which are tested by manufacturers and often gain F.D.A. approval before long-term outcomes are known, said Diana Zuckerman, president of the nonprofit National Center for Health Research in Washington.
“The F.D.A. keeps promising to do a better job of post-market surveillance, but there is no evidence of real improvement,” she said.
Many ophthalmologists insist Lasik is the safest procedure done on the eye — some say the safest medical procedure, period — and serious complications are “exceedingly rare.”
Patients’ vision may regress after surgery, and they may need to use eyeglasses at times, some concede. But most Lasik surgeons maintain that soreness, dry eyes, double vision and other visual aberrations like those suffered by Mr. Ramirez subside within months for most patients.*
That was the case for Justin Puglisi, 39, a letter carrier active in the Air National Guard. He experienced dry eyes for a few weeks after undergoing laser vision correction last September but no longer needs to use wetting eye drops.
“Over all, it is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself,” said Mr. Puglisi, who lives in Baldwin, N.Y.'
I have a recording of Optical Express surgeon Jonathan Carr telling one of my MBE clients that dry eye syndrome is - and I quote - ‘
incurable’!
And one Optical Express IMAB member, US ophthalmologist Dr Marguerite McDonald, publicly agrees with Dr Carr, '
Dr McDonald warns that though dry eye syndrome is common (and incurable) ...'
www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/art...rid-of-your-dry-eyes
Not for one nanosecond do I believe that Mr Puglisi was a random satisfied lasik patient, and nor do I accept that his dry eyes magically healed after a few weeks.
He either did not have dry eyes, or they were so mild to be inconsequential, or, he still has dry eyes.
Now let me join up the dots for you...
• The Air National Guard is of course part of the United States Air Force.
• Dr Steven Schallhorn was instrumental in the FDA approving lasik.
• Schallhorn was a pilot in the US Navy. (current IMAB member, and previous Optical Express Chief MD until he jumped ship to join his pal Jim Mazzo at Zeiss in 2016).
• Schallhorn and his coho
rts are active members of the ASCRS, as is Dr Eric Donnenfeld, Mr Puglisi’s lasik surgeon.
'Dr Schallhorn is the founder of the Department of Defense refractive surgery program which now consists of over 20 centers providing mission-enhancing surgery to active duty personnel. He has led many studies on the safety and effectiveness of eye surgery with a special emphasis on evaluating the physiologic impact of environmental extremes, such as hypoxia, hypobaria, as well as the quality of vision. He has presented to the FDA numerous times and was instrumental in the approval of many ophthalmic devices.’
**
www.refractivealliance.com/members/sschallhorn
So when journalist Rona Caryn Rabin asked questions of the US refractive industry, I have no doubt they put their horrid heads together and came up with Justin Puglisi as their poster boy.
***
It's because this industry is so incestuous that they have got away with legally damaging people for so long, and with their slimy tentacles tightly wrapped around government officials and others with bribes, that's why it's such a fight to get this scandal publicised!
But we're getting there!
*Important note! While lasik is the most common laser eye surgery procedure on sale, the only real difference with lasek and PRK is that no flap is cut, but the cornea is similarly burned away and the side effects and complications generally the same.
ALL refractive eye surgery procedures are risky, and ALL are causing major problems for patients: including IOLs, and lens exchange - aka RLE/NLR/NLE, the removal of healthy natural lenses immorally sold to people as an alternative to redaing glasses!
In comparison with the UK, lens exchange in the US is in its infancy, but as more surgeons realise that it's way more lucrative than laser, the numbers of patients reporting problems with these ops will soon escalate.
UK patients reporting serious issues following these ops initially started contacting me in mid 2014, and I predicted that lens exchange would catch up with - if not overtake - post op laser problems.
And sure enough, four years on the numbers have rocketed!
**A highly informative blog about Dr Steven Schallhorn here!
lasikadvisory.blogspot.com/2013/08/is-st...sing-navydod-to.html
***Read the small print under the photo in the NYT article, and - if your eyes are good enough, you'll see that it's allegedly Justin Puglisi undergoing surgery. I'm not aware of patients being automatically filmed, certainly not in the the UK, so call me a conspiracy theorist if you must, but quite a coincidence that they had Mr Puglisi's op on film!