About Lasik "mistakes"

[Lucy]

This is a bit OT, but many of us are here because of Lasik or PRK or something similar.

Today on Oprah, Dr. Oz was there and they were talking about medical mistakes. One woman had undergone a mastectomy and it was because they had her records mixed up with someone else. She had a tumor in her neck and that was already taken care of. Then the needless mastectomy.

The part that got my attention was when Dr. Oz said that "my wife had Lasik surgery and they programmed the laser for one eye and operated on the wrong eye." Then said something like her eye was a mess. Not much time was devoted to this subject, but I was amazed to hear a doctor talk about a mistake, especially a Lasik mistake. So often medical mistakes are swept under the rug, ignored and denied.

Lucy

[liz56]

I saw that, too, Lucy. I wonder if the show will have her on at some point, especially if they get a good response. I think that he used a strong word when he talked about what happens when they cut the eye. The laser terminology makes it sound really harmless, but I spoke with a young person who recently had PRK, and he said that he could smell his eye burning.

This weekend, I spoke with someone who said that he considers it from time to time but does not think that he'll do it. I told him about the stories here, and he said that it just confirms what was keeping him from doing it. So, you guys helped!

--Liz

[Lucy]

Liz, I want to say the word was "mangled" or something like that. It was a strong word he used, however. When you have Lasik, you do smell your flesh burning. Everyone will tell you that. I'm not sure on PRK because I've not had that. I love Dr. Oz.

[Guest]

I'm not sure on PRK because I've not had that. I love Dr. Oz.

You most certainly do, they actually warn you before hand that you will smell something and it smells like burning hair.

Quite a sickening feeling when you realise it is your cornea being fried.

Cheers

Ian

[bernmee]

Thats it, I'm writing to DR. Oz.

Bernadette

[Guest]

There was a thread sometime back about people writing to Oprah.

Maybe the time is now for those of you who live in the USA.

We only get the show over here when there is nothing else to air and usually it is about 12 months out of date.

We are still getting reruns of Judge Judy from 1999 so I can't imagine that the Oprah show broadcast here will be that recent.

Cheers

Ian

[mary kenny badami]

I wasn't precisely "watching" Oprah yesterday afternoon my time (Tuesday, March 10th), but I happened to be channel-surfing just in time to hear Dr. Oz say something like the following (paraphrase is mine): My wife had Lasik eye surgery, which was set for her <one> eye but was started for the <other> eye.

And yes, I'm pretty sure that he said that his wife's outcome was negative, but I honestly don't remember the key word. (And I'm also pretty sure that he did not say whether the problem was permanent or temporary -- and I'm not minimizing temporary problems, folks; nor whether it was fixable or had been fixed). My impression was that he was offering a personal anecdote in support of the issues for that day's show (e.g., children who had died or almost died; women who'd had surgery because of tragic mis-diagnoses, etc.)

I visited Oprah's website a little while ago today. Her show has a followup comments section regarding each day's show, but so far today (Wednesday afternoon, Eastern Daylight Time USA), the commentaries, while passionate and sometimes heartbreaking, are about other kinds of medical mistakes. Not one word so far about Lasik or other refractive eye surgery.

Lucy and Rebecca and I were among many, many others over on LaserMyEye several years ago who tried via e-mails to suggest topics for Oprah's show such as "Patients with problems post-Lasik eye surgery." We never did succeed in getting the attention of Oprah or her staff.

So, I say to bernmee and anyone else who wants to try to get Dr. Oz's attention (because presumably he has both specialized knowledge and a degree of "vested interest" in this matter), I say, please let Dr. Oz know that "we" -- on LaserMyEye and DryEyeZone -- are here and would very much appreciate his attention!

[MyDryEyes]

I find this topic interesting. It just so happens that Dr. Oz's wife was here (here being the university where I work) giving a presentation about the importance of alternative medicine in health care. I wonder when she had the eye surgery? It must have been since then because she was fine at the time. Or maybe the mistake hasn't been life altering?? Interesting.