optical expres - laser eye surgery (Optical Express)

Member Name: LittlestBonobo

Product:	Optical Express
Date:	30/01/09 (1066 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: They cattle farm their patients through the procedure and pay no attention to their well being.

Here is a copy of my complaint letter to optical express:
To Whom This May Concern,

I am writing in regard to my laser eye surgery, which I had in January 2009.

The results of the operation are as expected, however the operation itself was nothing short of traumatic. The anaesthetic did not work properly, and I was in agony throughout the operation until I could get home, take a large dose of painkillers and go to sleep.

I have had surgery in the past under local anaesthetic and it was fine. I am not a nervous patient. With this surgery however, I could feel the surgeon touching my eye, which was triggering my blink reflex. This is not something I had any control over, and I was struggling to try and keep my eyes wide open, and resist the need to blink. The surgeon repeatedly shouted at me to relax and stop resisting. I apologised, but told him that I couldn't help it, it was just a reflex because I could feel what he was doing. His behaviour was appalling, he was extremely rude to me, presuming me just to be nervous, and ignoring the obvious signs of the anaesthetic not having worked fully.

The pain I experienced was like nothing I've ever experienced before, I can only describe it as prolonged agony. Despite the fact that I was sweating and shaking from the pain, the surgeon continued to shout at me for 'not relaxing'. I was terrified of moving in case I jeopardised the operation so I had to lie there and wait for it to finish. After the operation, whilst having the final check before leaving, the surgeon commented that he was surprised as I didn't seem nervous before the procedure. I told him that I wasn't nervous, I was in a lot of pain, and that's why I was struggling to keep my eyes open and stay still. He did not acknowledge this at all, he simply ignored this comment and ushered me out of the room.


Although I had someone with me to help me get home, I had an hour's journey back to Sowerby Bridge from Leeds via the train. I could not open my eyes for the entire journey so had to be guided through the train stations by my arm. I was in excruciating pain for two hours until I was back home, at which time I took a heavy dose of painkillers and went to sleep.



The whole experience can only be described as shoddy up to the surgery itself which was extremely poorly conducted and the surgeon was completely uninterested in the fact that he had not anaesthetised me properly before the procedure.

At the Leeds branch, after my initial consultation, I was told that I could sign the credit agreement at the Huddersfield branch as it was closer. This took 3 trips to Huddersfield to achieve. At the Leeds branch, they told me I had to 'pop in to the Huddersfield branch' before the operation to sign some documents. The first time I went in, I was told there was no one there who had the documents. The second time I was asked for my passport/ driving licence, bank details and proof of address. None of which I had on me at the time, as no one advised me that they would be required, I was only told that I'd be signing some documents. So I had to go back a third time, documents to hand, to complete the paperwork. So 'just signing some documents' totalled driving 60 miles, paying around £10 of parking fees and wasted several hours of my time.

On the day of the appointment, I arrived for the appointment at 2pm, but was left in a freezing waiting room with a broken coffee machine until 3pm before being seen. Although the appointment was at 2, I did not leave until after 5.30 when the shop was closing, as there were long periods of being sat around waiting to be seen, without knowing what I was waiting for.

At the check-up a week later, I asked the optician why I was in so much pain during the surgery, as so many testimonials on the wall advertising the same procedure as 'pain free'. He told me that it's rare but some people are resistant to anaesthetic. There was no apology, even when I told him that I did tell the surgeon that I was in pain, during the surgery and after - only to be ignored.

I do not believe that this is an isolated incident with this surgeon since, in the recovery room, I was with a guy who had the procedure shortly after me, who also said that he was in pain, and the surgeon had been shouting at him to 'relax, and stop resisting' and even at one point, had shouted to the nurses that the patient was being uncooperative, because he was unable to stop himself from blinking when he could feel his eyeball being touched.

It seems that your organisation is wholly interested in cattle farming your clients in and out of surgery without regard for performing the surgery with any due care for the patient. Having reported to your surgeon, the nurse in the recovery room and an optometrist at the check up, that I was in a lot of pain, not one person saw fit to apologise, offer a complaints process, or indeed to address the problem that I had not been anaesthetised properly at the time. If this was performed in a hospital under there would have been a complaint filed and an investigation into why the surgeon continued and ignored the obvious signs that the anaesthetic had not been effective. But with your organisation I have reported this failure to three different people and no one has been at all interested in what went wrong.

Summary: Don't have it done.