I had LASIK surgery on July 25, 2001 to correct my near-sightedness and an astigmatism. My surgeon classified me as "a perfect candidate."
The procedure took a little longer than normal according to the times they had quoted me, but I though nothing of it.

The following morning, I had sever pain in my left eye. I returned to my surgeon that morning and he informed me that the corneal flap in my left eye had shifted, and would have to be re-floated. I was prepped and put back on the table for another procedure. This procedure was a lot more painful than the original, since my eye was now irritated.

The flap was refloated and i returned home. About an hour later the pain was so severe that I couls not stand it. I returned to the surgeon, who installed a bandage contact lens and gave em some antistetic (numbing)drops to relieve the pain.

I returned to the surgeon each of the next two days and was assured everrything was going fine. I kept complaining about doubl-images in my right eye and he said not to worry about it. My left eye was healing nicely he informed me.

A week later, after having the bandage contact removed and being told that I was doing great, the double images - although very sharp - were still double! "Do not worry" I was told. That should go away.

On a bright, sunny Saturday morning - approx. 8 days after my surgery, I went shopping and began to experience light sensativity and some burning in both eyes. As the day wore on, the burning and light sensativity got worse. By that night, I couldn't even watch TV as it hurt my eyes. I returned to using the numbing drops I had been given, and tried to sleep. The effect of the drops lasted about 15-20 minutes each application, but continued trying to sleep - to no avail.

Fianlly, at 6:45 Sunday morning, I couldn't stand it any longer and called the emergency number. The on-call Dr. (not my surgeon) tried valiently to help me all through the day, calling in prescriptions, recommending ice packs, anything he could think of to relieve the pain. At 5:00 he asked me to meet him at the office.

He took one look at my eyes and immediately began loading them up with drops. He called in the Surgeon for a consult. He informed me that I had infections and abcesses in both eyes. He said the left eye would have to be refloated again. The surgeon arrived, took one look through the scope and remarked; "Geeez...what happened?" The 2 doctors conferred in the hallway and the surgeon decide I did not need the refloat procedure. He gave me Ciloxan drops and said to return the next day.

Mind you..I was not able to drive, since I could barely open my eyes or see, however I returned t the office the following morning and was told that the infection was getting "less dense and clearing." I returned each of the next three days to hear the same doagnosis, but was not seeing or feeling any better.

On the fourth day he informed he that he had "never seen anything like this before" and had set up a consult for me with a cornea specialist. I saw the cornea specialist two days later and within 30 minutes of my arrival, he had me sign a consent form to perform a surgical procedure to remove necrotic (dead) corneal tissue from my left eye. The pain was unbearable.

For the next few weeks, I experienced pounding, throbbing, excrutiating pain in my head behind my left eye. The pain episodes would come on about once every hour and last about 15 minutes. It felt like a truck was driving over my head.

I was using a variety of eye dropes every 15 minutes to fight the infection. One such drop had to be specially mixed in a lab for me a the cost of $125.00 per order (2 orders needed).

Over the course of the 5 or 6 days following the procedure, the specialist had to twice instal a glue-plug in my left eye to stop my perforrated cornea from leaking. The stiches he had placed in my eye were extremely uncomfortable and had to be protected by a bandage contact lens.

In early Sept. he informed me that he would have to do another procedure in my left eye - known as a "Lamelar Patch Graft" (sp?)which would use a piece of donor cornea tissue to replace the piece of my cornea that had been removed. Meanwhile my right eye was clearing, but my vision was worse than before the original LASIK procedure.

Over the course of the next month, the infection had totally cleared, the patch graft healed and we began to try to rehabilitate my vision. It was determined that my right eye vision was 20/400, and my left eye was worse than 20/800 (which is being able to read the big "E" on the eye chart...which I could not!). I could not even count how many fingers were being held up...I could only identify when the technician moved her hand.

I was advises to meet with a vision rehabilitation Optometrist. He worked with me for over two hours and fitted me with a custom made set of Rigid contact lenses which restored my sight at a cost of $1800.00.

Fianl result to date: I have a severe scar and malformation on my right cornea from a surgically-induced astigmatism and the infection. The cornea is too thin now to do any additional laser procedures to corret the problem.
Left eye - permenant haze covers about 70% of optic field. No correction available excpet Cornea Transplant.