Cancelled surgery

'My story...

2 weeks ago I went for a consult at Optimax in Leicester and decided to go ahead with surgery a couple of weeks later. I feel like I experienced fantastic service and felt very comfortable to go ahead with LASIK.

During the week between the consultation and deciding to go ahead, I felt like I had done all my due diligence on the company and the procedure.
I now know I had barely scratched the surface.
I paid my money and booked everything in for the following Thursday.
In the meantime I found out about My Beautiful Eyes Foundation and as part of my due diligence I reached out to ask some questions.

Monday morning and Sasha called me and I feel like I’ve dodged a bullet. After a good conversation I felt completely confident backing out of surgery.

Luckily, the clinic were fantastic about everything and at no point did I feel pressured to go through with anything.
As much as I think that refractive surgery is super-sketchy, Optimax did give me a great service.

I think anyone considering Laser Eye surgery should have a conversation with Sasha, if you come out the other side feeling confident of the outcome then I’d be surprised, so many unknowns!

I have to admit, during the first moments of the phone call I was skeptical of her claims and I felt 99% sure I would be continuing with my planned LASIK at Optimax in Leicester on the Thursday.

But after hearing the emotion in her voice after just a few minutes, I spent the following couple of hours going down the rabbit hole researching refractive laser surgery outcomes...

I couldn’t believe what I was reading, it sounded horrific.

I could not in all good conscience go ahead with my surgery on the Thursday based on the unpredictability of the outcome.

I couldn’t thank Sasha enough for calling me.

When Optimax had been telling me that in a few years I will need reading glasses I felt like this is a misleading term as it appears that, from my brief research, that the more accurate warning of: ‘in a few years you will need glasses for anything nearby’ would seem to be more applicable.

I didn’t think it was worth the risk for me, I wear contacts or glasses and both give me 100% crystal clear problem free vision guaranteed.

The woman on the phone at Leicester I spoke to after I decided to back out, couldn’t have been any more understanding about me now not wanting to go ahead with it.

As bad as the surgery is, I cannot fault the front-of-house side of things. They totally understood my concerns and left things really amicable with me if I decided to change my mind.

So far I’ve had them cancel the finance (which I’ve had confirmed by email) and a couple of days later got my £500 refunded to my credit card without any issues.

I hope this is useful to someone else in my position.

Samantha'

www.opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk/ind...53-optimax-ultralase

I have worn glasses (short-sighted) since the age of 15 and now at 42 am rapidly reaching the age where I will possibly need reading glasses at some stage over the next few years. Given the pandemic and the fact that I've not been able to go on holiday since November 2019, I was in a position where I'd be able to afford laser eye surgery.

I went to Optimax in Leeds on Friday 9th October 2020 when I had all the relevant eye tests but was told that my cornea were too thin for laser treatment, and was offered the implantable contact lens as an alternative. My prescription is -4.75 in my left eye and - 3.25 in my right eye.

I had paid my deposit and was all set to go today (10th April) but yesterday I opted out of the surgery and cancelled - so what put me off?

In the week leading up to my appointment, I found that the Optimax centre in Leeds were unable to answer (what I thought to be) some very straightforward questions I had. There was, of course, no available specialist to answer my queries and I was also worried that they were wanting full payment to be made some two days before the surgery was to take place. Even now, I wouldn't be able to tell you the name of my proposed surgeon who was going to carry out the surgery. They provided no paperwork with this important information, so that I have been unable to look at his experience and success or failure rates.

A bit perturbed by the above, I set about looking for reviews of Optimax after work on Thursday afternoon, and am glad that I did, but wish I had done this sooner, as I wouldn't now be in the potential position of losing a £1,000 deposit.

Having read some of the horror stories however, especially concerning the possibility of cell damage with these lenses, and the need for an ECC test every year, that was not explained to me, plus lack of aftercare, customers experiencing starbursts, halos, dry eyes, and worsening vision post surgery, I am fully confident that I have had a lucky escape.

The surgeon told me that I could have both my eyes operated on at the same time, which is apparently a big no-no, as well as the possible complications and side effects being buried deep in a six page customer declaration form.

At the end of the day, £1,000 is a lot of money, but it pales into insignificance compared to the stories I have subsequently read on the internet. I would really encourage anyone who is wanting to have surgery to do some serious research before going ahead with the procedure. I was unaware, until finding information on a website that most companies pay their staff commission on sales and the whole eye refractive industry is unregulated.

I was definitely not fully informed and would appreciate any advice you can offer to help me recover my £1,000 deposit.

You only get one pair of eyes, and I for one, will be sticking to glasses and contact lenses.

Many thanks in advance.

David Brown

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I would highly recommend contacting Sasha Rodoy (Patient Advocate at My Beautiful Eyes Foundation) who will be able to advise you. Email  sasha@mybeautifuleyes.co.uk

Please come back to update us.

I just want to say “Thank you” to the man with the group of people in Harley Street who stopped me on my way into Optimax Clinic on Wednesday. He told me what had happened to his eyes after having the same lens surgery I was planning (and I’m sorry to say that I didn’t ask his name). My first instinct was to ignore him, but I will be eternally grateful that I did not. He told me what to expect when I went in and he was spot on, making my decision not to proceed an easy one. I was unaware that these operations are unregulated and I wish everyone involved in the campaign very best wishes for success.

Sent from my iPad