LASIK eye surgery can improve mild and moderate vision problems and often provides better vision than glasses, but its effectiveness is less obvious than treating serious problems such as legal blindness. Claire had Lasik in 2014. A second Lasik operation on the left eye was necessary, resulting in retinal detachment. Claire underwent surgery to repair her retina, but the operation failed and resulted in a cataract. Claire then underwent cataract surgery, which resulted in an increase in her intraocular pressure. This led to another surgery to implant a flap in his eye to regulate his intraocular pressure. This operation also went wrong. His eye pressure dropped too low and destroyed his vision. Claire`s eye was completely blind with malignant glaucoma and no pupils. Her eye hurt so much that Claire had to undergo evisceration surgery on January 30, 2017. Claire now has a prosthetic eye. Claire`s story is an example of what we call the “domino effect of unnecessary eye surgery.” The photo below is a photo of Claire`s eye after the evisceration operation. A 37-year-old woman underwent LASIK in July 2017 after being tricked into believing the surgery was safe.
She immediately had a problem with one eye. His surgeon tried various treatments, but his eye was getting worse and worse. A few months later, she sought a second opinion from another ophthalmologist, who diagnosed her with a Mycobacterium chelonae infection. Because the infection raged for so long, his cornea was destroyed. She is now blind in this eye and has constant pain. His only hope of restoring his vision is to find a doctor who can control the infection and then undergo a corneal transplant. The toll this situation has taken on his life is enormous. She feels that she is no longer able to be fully there for her 3 children.
Stress and depression caused other health problems, and she became socially withdrawn. She shares her story in hopes of saving someone else from becoming a victim. The American Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery reports that LASIK surgery is one of the most successful and common surgical procedures. Although a LASIK procedure can cause a person to lose certain visual lines on the vision map in very rare cases, in all likelihood, it will not cause legal blindness. According to Consumer Reports, disability of vision loss is an extremely rare complication of LASIK, occurring in less than 1% of cases. The most common side effects of LASIK surgery include temporary vision disturbances such as star flashes or halos around lights or decreased night vision. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a person is considered legally blind if their vision cannot be corrected to better than 20/200 or if their field of view is 20 degrees in diameter or less. However, the term has both legal and medical connotations, as such a severe visual impairment can affect a person`s ability to work and earn a living. The U.S. government actually expanded the definition of “legally blind” to determine a person`s eligibility for government assistance and disability benefits, and this vision disorder is officially defined in the Social Security Act. The CDC estimates that the federal government spends more than $4 billion annually to help Americans with vision loss. LASIK is a form of laser correction for eyes with refractive errors – usually blurred vision.
By reshaping the cornea, LASIK can help if you are nearsighted (nearsighted), farsighted (farsighted) or astigmatism. But you can only be a candidate for this elective surgery if your visual acuity is within a certain range, which disqualifies most people who are legally blind. You`re considered legally blind if you have at least one of these two eye conditions, even if you wear the best corrective lenses, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH): If you`ve ever heard this term, you may have evoked the vision of an elderly person with a stick stumbling through life in complete darkness. But legally blind does not necessarily mean completely blind, and the designation is indeed not an accurate indication of a person`s level of vision. One question that sometimes raises is how effective it might be for someone who would otherwise be legally blind. Could they have their eyes reshaped so they can see again? That being said, complications of surgery such as infections can lead to vision loss or blindness. The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) publishes that legal blindness is when a person has a vision of 20/200 or worse. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that LASIK can cause vision loss in some people that cannot be corrected with additional surgery, glasses or contact lenses. Despite the low presence of this risk, the success rate of LASIK is very high and significant complications are rare. For someone diagnosed as legally blind, things are very different.
His condition has progressed so much that there is no guarantee that a current procedure can reverse it.