Posted on 24th May 2008 @ 4:48 PM

LASER EYE PROCEDURE GONE WRONG

by Susan Ferraro
 
Tom Babich can't see straight. "I see double and triple images on top of each other in the right eye," said Babich, 29, whose trouble began in August when he had Lasik eye surgery to correct nearsightedness.

Diane Iuliucci of Long Island had to go through two Lasik operations before she was able to see well.

These days, the computer programmer struggles through a third of the 1,000 pages of technical material he used to scan each week. Glasses won't help. To limit constant headaches, he wears an eye patch on his right eye.

Babich said his doctor — whom he saw for just 10 minutes, after preoperative work was done by an assistant — told jokes during the procedure and didn't properly adjust the treatment chair until after he'd done the right eye.

"He told me he was so good at Lasik, he didn't need to pay attention," Babich recalls. "He explained Lasik was like flying an airplane: You didn't need to pay attention when you were really good."

Marketed as a high-tech but simple and glamorous option to glasses, the $2.5 billion Lasik eye surgery industry will be the eye care of choice for a million Americans this year who want to end their astigmatism, nearsightedness or farsightedness.