CBS NEWS
LASIK Laser Vision Correction
Part 1 – May 21, 2001
Part 2 – May 22, 2001
Part 3 – May 23, 2001
View the original CBS Broadcast in the Multimedia Section
CBS NEWS Part 1
Manuel Gallegos: Karen Hood has been wearing glasses since sixth grade. Life is a blur without them.
Karen Hood: I probably would have walked off a cliff if I lived in cave man days.
Manuel: In a few minutes Karen expects to be rid of those cumbersome lenses for good. She’s having laser eye surgery, LASIK. In a society driven by self-improvement and convenience, LASIK has become a tremendously popular surgical procedure. Over one million people had this surgery last year from common man to superstar athletes. After his eye surgery, New York Giants running back Tiki Barber had his best season.
Tiki Barber: I get down field and I turn, I can see the quarterback’s face, you know, clearly. I can tell
when he’s gonna throw me the ball.
Manuel: Surgeons say, so far there’s no evidence of long term negative effects to the procedure.
Dr. Andrew Caster: We haven’t seen any trends and they would be showing up at this point.
Manuel: A lot of patients are choosing to go to low cost eye centers, many of them do good work, but there’s concern that to make money patients are being convinced to do surgery when they shouldn’t. In some cases their eyesight becomes permanently damaged. Ron Link runs a website for LASIK victims.
Ron Link: Eighty percent of the people that come to our website could have been avoided, their outcomes would have not been bad, had they been properly screened.
Dr. Andrew Caster: When you take doctors out of the equation and you let all of the decisions be made by businessmen you’re going to have patients who are treated who shouldn’t be treated.
Karen: (post surgery) This is like a total miracle.
Manuel: For Karen, seeing is believing, she won’t have to worry, like most, her surgery went well.
Manuel Gallegos, CBS NEWS, Los Angeles.
CBS NEWS Part 2
Manuel : Like many, who struggle with poor eyesight, Bobby Newmyer was lured by laser eye surgery, but he says his result was disastrous.
Bobby: One eye is terrific and the other eye is in a permanent state of haziness. It’s like looking through a shower glass that’s fogged in, all the time.
Manuel: Over one million people had laser eye surgery last year. Most were successes, but as the business booms, surgeons are seeing too many patients with bad results, and once the surgery is done the technology isn’t always there to fix it.
Dr. Andrew Caster: Sometimes we’re able to treat these patients who had botched work done, but usually we have to say “I’m sorry there’s nothing right now that we can do”.
Manuel: With so many laser centers popping up, it’s becoming tougher to know exactly what kind of care you may be getting. Certainly low cost places aren’t all bad, but in some cases patients could be gambling with their eyesight.
Dr. Andrew Caster: There are a lot of centers that are trying to provide this procedure at a very very low price, and in order to do that they need to cut corners.
Manuel: Taking short cuts the patient can’t see, like not maintaining the laser, reusing disposable instruments, or hiring cheaper, inexperienced workers. Surgeons like Dr. Richard Bronstein say consumers have to be careful..
Dr. Bronstein: They should know that they’re dealing with a business, a business that could close, and does not necessarily have them at heart.
Manuel: About thirty percent of those seeking surgery aren’t good candidates, and that could be the key to preventing problems, making sure it’s right for you. Get a second opinion, find a good surgeon, generally you get what you pay for. Bobby Newmyer learned the hard way.
Bobby: Over night I went from a very happy person, to someone that’s just struggling with his eyesight all the time.
Manuel: Now it may be years before technology can fix his sight.
Manuel Gallegos, CBS NEWS, Los Angeles.
CBS NEWS Part 3
Manuel : Who would have thought a procedure that only takes a few minutes could change someone’s life? Laser eye surgery is doing just that, giving people like Lissa Dutton normal vision after years of struggling with lenses.
Lissa Dutton: (post surgery) Thank you so much. This is really incredible.
Manuel: Laser technology is improving each year the surgery machines are becoming more precise and sophisticated, eventually making the procedure available to more people.
Dr. Andrew Caster: Within about two years we’re going to have lasers that can treat irregular surfaces. Right now we can’t treat them, but we will be able to treat them.
Manuel: And what about seeing better than perfect, like some star athletes do naturally? In a few years new, Wavefront laser technology will remove all the eye’s imperfections.
Dr. Bronstein: What we’re talking about is giving people maybe better than 20/20 vision on a regular basis. Giving them sort of super vision or hyper-acuity as it’s described.
Manuel: And as the laser procedure is perfected, once children reach the right age they can simply have the surgery.
Dr. Andrew Caster: I think that in fifty years we will not be using eye glasses or contact lenses. We’ll look into museums and we’ll see these eye glasses and these contact lenses and the dad will put his arm around his son and say, “You know, I used to use those when I was a child”.
Manuel: One thing the laser can’t correct for, the need for reading glasses. Eventually we all have to have them. Other surgeries are in the works for that, but perhaps one day, none of us will need lenses of any kind.
Manuel Gallegos, CBS NEWS, Los Angeles.