Question:
In the past several weeks a few vocal individuals who had refractive
surgery with unfortunately bad results have posted their personal
views again and again. The implication of all these negative (but
generally accurate) posts is that these individuals are ardently
anti-refractive surgery. Some have claimed that they are not.
Anyone who has had refractive surgery already knows if they are
satisfied or not. Attempting to persuade someone who is 20/Happy that
should not be is as futile as attempting to convince someone who is
20/ReallyUnHappy that they should be thrilled with their results. I
hope that this issue does not interfere with my proposed debate. I
would like participants to focus on the potential candidate - someone
who has not had refractive surgery but is considering refractive
surgery.
It is obvious from the posts of those with poor outcomes that they
have completed a lot of research and are well informed. Perhaps a bit
biased, but an informed bias. I ask that they use that knowledge here
to help educate people who are considering refractive surgery.
So...I have a question that I hope starts an informative debate:
"Under what circumstances is refractive surgery okay?"
Answer:
I'd like to try just one specific example here. This is not
representative of the usual circumstances, but might serve to refute those
who say that it is *never* okay.
I have a coworker, who had an eye injury at some point. He developed
cataract in that eye, possibly as a result of the injury. He was fairly
young for cataract (forties). Since the cataract may have been the result
of an injury, he was not expected to develop cataract in the other eye
anytime soon.
He was very myopic in both eyes, and it was decided to correct the myopia
in the operated eye. This would leave him with considerable imbalance,
which might make it very difficult to have stereo vision (or any kind of
vision, if he couldn't adapt). The plan was to have him wear a contact in
the unoperated eye, but no attempt was made to see if he could wear
contacts in advance of the surgery. I asked him what would happen if he
couldn't wear contacts, and was unable to adapt. He said that his doctor
promised that he could have refractive surgery in the unoperated eye.
Since it would then be a medical necessity, and not cosmetic or
convenience, the HMO would cover the cost of the refractive surgery.
The contact (he just wore one) worked OK for him, so he never actually had
the refractive surgery. However, had contacts not worked, and he was
unable to adapt to the imbalance, I would say that refractive surgery
would have been OK.
