ABC News
October 3, 2003
Patient Jonah Walker: I still remember the first time I put glasses on and could see leaves on trees.
Reporter Stephan Tubbs: Jonah Walker is 28 years old and has been dependant on glasses nearly every day of his life.
Patient: He’s a freelance video editor who lives in Hollywood.
Patient: You’re always cleaning your glasses, you know, breaking glasses and losing them.
Reporter:After a lot of research he decided to get LASIK eye surgery on both eyes.
Patient: I mean I can’t drive legally. My right eye is not that bad and my left eye is a lot worse. I read with my glasses on. I really can’t sit in front of my computer without my glasses on. Pretty much every moment of my life that I’m awake I’m wearing my glasses.
Reporter: What Walker is going to have done isn’t the normal kind of procedure that’s been done in the U.S. since 1995. This is new, called the Wavefront method, based on wavefront technology.
Patient: From what I hear it’s just pressure on the eye. I think it will be interesting.
Reporter: Wavefront technology was originally used by astronomers to see farther by adjusting lenses to various aberrations and then allowing for a clearer image to come through. The wavefront method gives each eyeball 200 individual prescriptions if you will.
Dr. Caster: Go ahead and blink.
Reporter Dr. Andrew Caster was one of the first doctors here in California to perform LASIK eye surgery with the Wavefront method and all it’s delicate computer equipment. He certainly got experience in the 8 plus years LASIK has been performed in the U.S.
Dr. Caster Since that time I’ve done about 12,000 laser vision correction procedures.
Reporter Caster says for his patients there’s understandably some anxiety at first.
Dr. Caster Most people are really afraid about LASIK because they really don’t know what LASIK is all about and they really don’t understand the high level of sophistication of the technology that we’re using in LASIK today.
ReporterBut he says there is really no pain at all.
Dr. Caster He’ll feel some pressure for about 20 seconds.
Reporter So going in, Walker is ready.
Patient Jonah Walker: I hope my vision will be perfect, but we’ll see what happens.
Dr. Caster: We’re using a laser that tracks your eye at 4,000 times per second.
Technician: Blink
Reporter: First, measurements are taken.
Technician: You’re going to see a red light that’s going to come on and it’s going to be off-center so ignore it and keep your eye focused in the center of that little circle. Blink
Reporter: From this point, Jonah Walker is just minutes from what will turn out to be a life-changing event. He walks down a hall in this smartly decorated Beverly Hills doctor’s office. Letters of praise framed on many of the hallway walls. Then it’s time.
Dr. Caster: Now we’re going to bring the patient in.
Reporter: This surgery room is something out of Star Trek. There are sliding glass doors, a sterile smell and feel and a constant hum from large pieces of equipment. At this point walker is on his back on a surgical type table.
Technician: Go ahead and close your eyes.
Dr. Caster: These are the numbing drops, so there is no shots of any kind that are needed for this procedure. The patient has been given some medicine to relax him but he’s perfectly awake and he’s going to feel some pressure. I don’t think he’s going to call it painful. I think he’s going to say there’s a little bit of pressure.
Reporter: Walker’s eyelids look strained as they’re propped open but he’s in no pain at all he says.
Dr. Caster: The depth of the treatment will be 33 microns. That will be the maximum depth. A human hair has about 100 microns in thickness, so we’re going to go about 1/3 of the thickness of a human hair.
Reporter: There are assistants that help Dr. Caster through the remarkably short procedure. It takes just minutes total.
Technician: Suction on
Dr. Caster: This is the only part you’re going to feel. This is the part where you feel the pressure and everything gets dark during this part. Just relax. Just keep looking right at the flashing red light.
Computer Voice: 47 seconds remaining
Dr. Caster: You’re doing great
Reporter: Again, there’s a space age feel to it all even down to the computer voice coming from one of the machines.
Computer Voice: 55% done
Dr. Caster: Just keep looking right at the light.
Reporter: Up close here is how it sounds as the procedure is under way. (Buzzing Sound) The noise may be the most intimidating part but within mere minutes, it’s over.
Computer Voice: Procedure Complete
Dr. Caster: Very good. That’s all there is.
Stephen Tubbs: Recovery time, maybe a day
Dr. Caster: Go ahead and blink. Open
Reporter: After the procedure Walker could instantly see better without glasses. Though his vision was a bit blurry from his just completed surgery. The 28 year old — yet another success for Dr. Andrew Caster and the Wavefront method.
Dr. Caster: People who don’t wear glasses or contacts don’t understand how limited people who wear glasses or contact lenses feel. To have that limitation eliminated so quickly and something that’s just so central to your being, the way that you see, it’s overwhelming for a lot of people.
Reporter: Another success story, Rebecca Fort of Upland, California. For 40 years she wore glasses.
Rebecca Fort: This morning I got up and I could see for the first time since I was about 14 to 15 years old.
Reporter: A day after surgery…
Rebecca Fort:I could see the clock, I could look out the door and I could see the trees with the leaves and the detail and the petals on the roses and the flowers and I could see what my husband looked like.
Dr. Caster: Many, many people start crying when they come out of the laser room because they are just overwhelmed with the fact that their own eyes are now able to see.
Reporter: According to Wavefront literature, nearly half of everyone in the U.S. requires some sort of vision correction and in the next year 2 million Americans will undergo laser eye surgery. Insurance does not cover the procedure. How much does it cost? Typically about $2500 per eye, depending on your doctor. Also keep in mind the procedure is not for everyone. Some people are not candidates and like with any medical procedure there are risks and the surgery is obviously not reversible. But the odds are against any sort of complications.
Rebecca Fort: I keep thinking, okay, I just got a good pair of contact lenses in. An exceptionally good pair and then I realize no I don’t. I never have to put them in again.
Dr. Caster: The 21st Century has arrived as far as LASIK eye surgery goes.
Computer Voice: Procedure Complete
Reporter: Reporting for Perspective, Stephan Tubbs, ABC News, Beverly Hills