Living with the Optimax curse

Having Lasek surgery at the age of 24 in 2008 with Optimax (performed by Manek Patel) was the worst decision of my life, by far.

The complications I am stuck with for life are: very poor quality vision due to haze and loss of contrast sensitivity including loss of colour perception; floaters constantly going across my line of sight; glare; light sensitivity; terrible night vision including halos and starbursts around lights; dry eyes; loss of focus and binocular vision (ie my eyes not working together in the same way); ghosting; induced astigmatism in my right eye. All of these massively impacted my activities, ability to work and state of mind.

The surgery didn't even give me close to 20/20 vision, so I either put up with poor vision or I wear glasses and contacts, neither of which get rid of the above complications.

I've never really coped with all this, and above all the fact that I recklessly chose to have the surgery, and to have it with a company that I now know to be unscrupulous in its pursuit of profit regardless of the human cost. I had a few mental health issues before, but since the surgery it's been far, far worse and life is above all about survival. I have much less quality of life.

Having the surgery was, of course, my mistake, but Optimax breached industry guidelines (eg I was only introduced to the surgeon on the day of surgery and was pressed into signing the consent form on the spot by the optometrist/sales person) in making sure that I went ahead so they got their commission.

I don't want others to make this mistake. Please don't have unnecessary eye surgery and definitely don't go near this company.