Barbara Berney, president of VSRN, was interviewed today by ABC News relative to VSRN's presentation at the FDA hearing on Friday, April 25th. Her segment is expected to air on World News Tonight at 6:30 Eastern on Wednesday, April 23rd or Thursday, April 24th.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr. DavOD Hartzok,

Also now doing the CBS Early Show on Thursday, 4/24, 6:30am, with my arm in a cast, no less.

Early Show was a major waste of my time and effort. The entire two minutes was scripted in favor of the doctor, and I barely had a chance to speak. Here's the most curious aspect: the FDA has only received 140+ complaints, but they started out by saying that about 1% of the 12 mil who have had surgery have complications. Even a child can do the math...and those of us with complications know it's more like 10%. I wonder how much ad revenue CBS & affiliates generate from the RS industry.

Hoping ABC World News Tonight will do a better job of telling the truth.

Interesting aside. I just read an article by an AP reporter that estimates 6 million have had LASIK in the U.S. That's quite a disparity.

Sandy Keller did an interview today with AP news, and I just got done with a phone interview with Bloomberg News. Everyone thinks this is some new, hot story. Wish they'd do their "homework" and get it right for a change.

I am new to the board although I was a member of the surgicaleyes.org board for a long time.

I saw the CBS interview. That doctor infuriated me. He deliberately brought up that statistic that only 140 people complained to the FDA out of millions to try to squash the idea that there is any legitimate problem with LASIK surgery. For that I can say that he was not objective and had a motive. If you search on google, most of the articles say that investors and analysts are watching closely at what the outcome of this FDA investigation. It is clear that money is a motive in not being objective as I am sure we all know.

It is interesting that I couldn't readily find a place to officially complain on the FDA website about the LASIK procedure that I had. I did send them an email from a link I found on their LASIK page but it wasn't clear what action they would take from that. Also, you would think there would be a link on the FDA page about how LASIK sufferers could give their input. It is no where to be found. I couldn't even find any information about them taking a closer look at this. Did any of you find that on the FDA sight?

The 140 number that the doctor quoted really doesn't make sense as Barbara pointed out. If as that doctor claimed 12 million people had the surgery and the FDA is claiming that they believe that 5% of the people who had LASIK are dissastified that comes out to 600,000 people who are not happy with their LASIK outcome. How could the FDA believe in the 5% number unless they really did get 10's of thousands of complaints. The really unfortunate part is that most people have no idea how extremely terrible your eyesite can get. Boiling it down to 5% is actually a manipulation of the true relevance of the problem. If 5% died from LASIK that doesn't sound very good but if you say 600,000 people died from LASIK, people would avoid it like the plague. I am honestly frustrated with the the 5% - 2% estimates. The percentages are numbers for the investors and to keep and attract new LASIK business. If they gave the actual number of people involved there would be a lot more critical thinking on people's part before deciding on the surgery.

I created a website back in 2001 that is still up. http://home.comcast.net/~mylasik/. Compared to my web skills now it isn't the greatest, but it does have my historical record in it. My vision did improve after more than 5 years of trying to fix it. It improved dramatically by getting plugs in my eyes for the dry eyes, having a proper diet with a lot less sugar, wearing vaulting contact lenses for a month or so which I believe let my cornea heal properly, using eyedrops (Thera Tears and now Systain), blowing on my eyes often to cause them to tear up especially in the morning, and finally I ended up getting glasses again and have a fantastic doctor that works with me to get the glasses just right. I unfortunately have a lot of vitreous floaters still which give me a lot of anxiety at times which can't be fixed easily or safely. My eyesite could still use a lot improvement though even though I have 20/20 vision.

hi jeff, i'm one-handed after hand surgery last week, so typing is slow. Welcome back.

The FDA really has no power to do anything of substance. mounting a study of patients with failed Lasik to be carried out by the those with a highly vested interest is like having the fox watch the henhouse.

If people were properly informed of the TRUE risks, and their own personal level of risk for their RX, pupil size, etc., and were shown images of what their vision might look like after Lasik, they would at least be making a choice based on the whole picture, not just the part that minimizes and projects a false sense of security.

Of all the patients I have talked to over the last 4 years, not one even knew the FDA was a place to report a problem. Maybe the informed consent and other documentation should carry a label: Report a complaint about this procedure to the FDA at: blah blah blah.

Finding an OD who will work with you to get the best possible fit is critical to getting glasses after bad Lasik. I also found one, and he will never refer or recommend Lasik again.

Hi Barbara and Dr. Hartzok,

Thank you for doing all this stuff. I'm glad this issue is getting more press now and you gusy are the ones to thank for that.

I'm doing better these days. Turns out that the headaches I always complained about were probably related to the Omega 3 supplements I was taking in the form of Flax Seed and Fish Oil. I've given those up and no more headaches for now.

Barbara - I hope your hand surgery was a success.

- Chris

Glad to hear you're doing better!

I spent all day Monday through Friday either on the phone with reporters, writing e-mails, and coordinating interviews with other patients. My favorite was the poor guy who woke me up Wednesday and wanted to know if I was the one talking about LASIK complications. My response was, "How did you get my home phone number?!"

Glad all that is over, hated seeing myself on TV, but figured this was our best shot at raising awareness. My hand hurts and I'm exhausted, but it was worth the effort. My thanks to all who consented to give interviews, to Abby Ellin of the NY Times for getting the ball rolling, and to, of all people, Glenn Hagele, who read our VSRN presentation on Refractive Surgery Syndrome (RSS) for us before the FDA. The text of our presentation is posted in a new thread, Refractive Surgery Syndrome. I also want to acknowledge Dr. Hartzok, who spent hours with me fine tuning our statement, and who has worked tirelessly for all of us since April 24, 2000, when he first registered with the old surgicaleyes.org.