Lasik Eye Surgery

[Old School 737]

Anybody had it done? Pros and cons? Down time? FAA issues?

 

[JudgeSmails218]

Haven't had it done, but if you're wanting to apply to any Asian carriers, I'd steer clear as they don't allow it. I know of some guys that had it done and are flying for carriers in the US with no problem.

 

[flythere]

Pretty simple process, had it done two years ago. Had surgery Friday afternoon around 1700, up the next day at 6am, for the first time in my life I could read the little clock on the VCR, usually it was a blur. My first follow up was that next morning, I was seeing 20/30, previous vision was 20/150-20/200 uncorrected. I was able to drive the next day after the follow-up. By the following Friday my vision was 20/20, it has finally settled at 20/12-20/15. On my one week follow up, I had the Eye doc complete the 8500-7, I went to my AME the following week and I was cleared back to work in approx 12 days, start to finish!

As for the FAA, they want your vision to be stable, before they will allow you to fly. Everybody is different, but on average it seems to be about a week or so to stabilize. The FAA has a form (Report of Eye Evaluation FAA form 8500-7) that you take to your Eye Dr. Once your Eye doc completes the form, you take that form to your AME for a medical. Your AME will give you the standard eye exam, once completed your AME will send that eye exam form with your medical results to OKC, he prints out a new medical, without the corrective lense statement and you are off and running.

It was a painless process as far as the FAA was concerned, now the AF reserve on the other hand has been a goat rodeo! Took almost 6 months to get a waiver.

 

[DrewBlows]

Pretty simple process, had it done two years ago. Had surgery Friday afternoon around 1700, up the next day at 6am, for the first time in my life I could read the little clock on the VCR, usually it was a blur. My first follow up was that next morning, I was seeing 20/30, previous vision was 20/150-20/200 uncorrected. I was able to drive the next day after the follow-up. By the following Friday my vision was 20/20, it has finally settled at 20/12-20/15.

As for the FAA, they want your vision to be stable, before they will allow you to fly. Everybody is different, but on average it seems to be about a week or so to stabilize. The FAA has a form (Report of Eye Evaluation FAA form 8500-7) that you take to your Eye Dr. Once your Eye doc completes the form, you take that form to your AME for a medical. Your AME will give you the standard eye exam, once completed your AME will send that eye exam form with your medical results to OKC, he prints out a new medical, without the corrective lense statement and you are off and running.

It was a painless process as far as the FAA was concerned, now the AF reserve on the other hand has been a goat rodeo! Took almost 6 months to get a waiver.

This was my exact experience minus the AF reserve part.

 

[othello]

Articals like this make me wonder. He did get 4 Million dollars. But lost his career.

"Among them is a young, highly paid pilot for United Airlines whose flying career was destroyed after LASIK surgery performed in Tucson severely damaged his night vision.

Now declared unfit to fly the jets that were his passion and his livelihood, Steve Post, 33, remains in shock a year after the surgery he hoped - as so many do - would simply liberate him from glasses and contact lenses.

"When I first realized the problems were not going away, as they said they would, I was in a lot of turmoil," said Post. "I thought, 'My God, is this the end of my career?'

"I was a captain in the world's largest airline. I loved my job, I was set for life. There has been a lot of difficulty accepting that this really is the end of my career. It's been very hard to let go."

Though sentenced to glasses and contacts to correct his poor distance-vision since he was 17, Post was never hindered in his fast-track flying career. He joined United at 24 and zoomed to 737 captain by 31 - about 10 years before most pilots do.

"I didn't have to have it (LASIK) to fly. I was just pretty frustrated with having to wear glasses all the time," he said.

While weighing going under the laser, Post did his homework, spending a year researching the surgery and the surgeons. He settled on Snyder at the UA - one of the two top LASIK surgeons in Tucson, his research found.

What went wrong for Post is one of the most common problems producing bad outcomes associated with LASIK surgery, according to his account.
The surgery itself, performed by Snyder, was not the problem. It went flawlessly, he said.

Rather, Post believes he was erroneously evaluated before the surgery by a technician and an optometrist, who pronounced him an "excellent" candidate for LASIK surgery.

In short, he alleges they failed to accurately measure the size of his pupils - one of the vital criteria for LASIK surgery. Patients with very large pupils often suffer severe problems with night vision after the surgery - what are known as "starbursts, haloes and ghosting" around lights.

It is a phenomenon that destroys the ability to see objects clearly at night.

One of the most common and debilitating complications of LASIK surgery, the problem is usually blamed on technicians not trained well enough to do accurate measurement, or clinics too eager to take on too many patients, even risky ones.

A year after his surgery, with no improvement in his night vision, Post has been permanently medically grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration. He will never fly commercial planes again.

Instead, he has returned to his home in Sierra Vista, where he does volunteer work with troubled youth, has become licensed as a foster parent, and has trained his dogs for therapy work in nursing homes.
But it may be one way to restore your retirement.
Quote:
A man whose career as a commercial pilot was ended by a LASIK eye operation should get a $4 million judgment, a judge ruled.

The Superior Court judge reinstated a $4 million judgment against University Physicians Healthcare - formerly University Physicians Inc. - in the case of former United Airlines pilot Steve Post, whose night vision was reduced by the eye surgery.

With interest, the judgment is now at $4.3 million, the largest verdict in a LASIK case in the United States.

Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis is intended to eliminate or reduce dependency on eyeglasses or contacts.

Post successfully claimed in his lawsuit in May 2002 that his large pupils made him an inappropriate candidate for such surgery and that proper screening and pupil measurement by UPI would have revealed this before his surgery. His surgery was performed at UPI's The LASIK Center, 655 N. Alvernon Way.

Post's loss of night vision left him unable to fly for commercial airlines. He said during trial he would not have had the surgery had he been told he was at increased risk for night vision problems.

Judge Kenneth Lee granted UPI's motion for a new trial when Post's expert witness, Dr. Jeffery Machat, a Canadian ophthalmologist, recanted testimony that UPI had fallen below the standard of care in performing LASIK on Post.

The Arizona Court of Appeals overturned the ruling in January, and the Arizona Supreme Court declined to review it this summer.

Lee ruled to reinstate the verdict late last week.

"I'm really disappointed and we're considering our options," said Norm Botsford, president and chief executive of UPI"

 

[ForgedBlade]

If you are going to do it, get it done at a place like TLC and do the wavefront process where they actually map your cornea (not the "generic" procedure). It is more expensive, but your eyes are worth it. My wife had hers done at some local place when she lived in another state, and her eyes have gone back to pretty close to where they were before she had it done. Her only option now is to get it done again or live with it like it is.

 

[Super Monkey]

Pros: I can open my eyes and get barreled now when I surf.

Cons: I can't do any contract flying work for any Japanese airlines until they change their rules.

 

[clr4theapch]

FWIW.. I was one of the first to ever get the lasix back in 1999.. had both eyes done the same time... your a bit smokey for the first 36 hours, then it clears up.. your vision is CAUV..for distance, you can see a nat on a birds a$$ at 50 yards.. really amazing to see than well, I was 20/15 in both eyes..However, my near vision was gone.. I had to have readers from that day on..

8 years later.. my old stigma and vision started to return.. but still 20/20ish.. and now in the 10th year, I am about 20 /30, still see really well w/o glasses but not quite as sharp as before..

This week, I got a Rx set of polarized sun glasses with bi-focals for reading.. and I am back..

After wearing glasses for 40 years, I got 10 years off.. I would do it again for sure.. I have no regrets... I will say, at night, I do get some "staring" around distant lights like street lights, but is not really noticable unless you really think about it..

Not being a pilot, the only think I would be cautions about is the cockpit vision of the instrument panels.. you might need to have the near glasses on to see them clearly.. make sure this is not a problem for you and tell your doctor first what you do..
The good thing, you might be able to see the approach lights before minimums better.. and spot an airport from 75miles out..

Good luck..

 

[flythere]

Those problems above are all common with the generic LASIK. Like someone else mentioned, the best method now is the wavefront LASIK. It is much more accurate and effective, it was a little more spendy, but it was well worth it!

 

[GoPats]

I had LASIK on both eyes performed in early 2004. It went well and there have been no waivers on my med. since then.

As far as the paperwork aspect of it, I had a similar experience as the other posters on this thread , i.e. not a big deal at all.

However, I have a friend who wasn't so lucky. His night vision sucks, for a lack of a more appropriate term. He has had halos since night-1. A "touch-up" was attempted but got him nowhere.

We went to different doctors. I went to a practice that was (and still is probably) one of the best in the Boston area. He did not.

The important thing here is "the doctor". That's all there is to it. Forget the type of laser or any of the other marketing BS.

It's the doctor!

He/She has to determine if you're a good candidate.

Are your corneas thin?
Are your pupils unusually large under dilation? (not as uncommon as you'd think)
Do you have dry eyes? (if you do have "a little" dry eye, then you're probably going to be miserable after LASIK).

As with any medical procedure, you will always run some risk. No such thing as 100% bulletproof surgery. Never was, never will be.

Think about it. Research it and make an informed decision. There may be more at stake than a career on the downside. There could be quality of life issues.

It worked out great for an awful lot of people, myself included.
I hope it does for you, if you choose it.

Just do your homework.

 

[Green Banana]

I went and talked to a doctor about it a few years ago. His simple answer was

"If you correct to 20/20 now, Why roll the dice and risk never flying again?"

 

[thinairupthere]

I had it done in Jan of this year- Was out of work for 2 weeks to let things settle, filled out the Fed paper work. AME signed it, sent it in, all was great. I am very happy with 20/15 and no night issues. One tip- when you go in for the messurments, especially the pupil, sit in a dark room for about 5 minutes so they get an acurate measurment of pupil diameter. That is where you end up with bad night vision sometimes. I love it.

 

[wannaBrich]

Those with strong astigmatism are at more risk of the halos than those with just near/far issues. This is why the eye doc I consulted told me not to consider it until the lasers and equipment gets better.

20/20 corrected? If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[Say Again Over]

Pros: I don't need to reach for my glasses when I get a text message. I don't need a watch with big numbers. I can see any and all displays on the scare bus. Scuba diving, bike riding, can set up my stereo or computer without several sets of glasses and spot lights.

Cons: ???

 

[satpak77]

I was researching this, still have not had it done, but the following Dr. is basically one of "the" LASIK guys in the world. In Houston. Priced accordingly

http://www.visiontexas.com/houston/stephen-slade-md.htm

 

[Crucianpilot]

Did mine in January at LasikPlus in orlando. Took 2 weeks off, faxed a letter from my lasik doctor to OK city before going back to work. Just filled out my 8500 form last week on my 3 month follow up. Will take this to my AME next month when my physical is due and then my restrictions will be removed. My vision is 20/15 both near and far. I had 20/100 and 20/200 with mild astigmatism and readers for near vision prior to the surgery. So far no complications, no halos, best decision I have made in a long time.

 

[t-bone]

I had the custom wavefront procedure done 2+ years ago and have had no complications at all. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. My longtime AME told me I needed to wait 90 days to go back to work, so I found a new doctor who signed me off after just 1 week.

You can do 1 eye at a time if you're concerned about complications.

You also want to avoid places that advertise $499/eye. I firmly believe that this is one of those areas where you'll get what you pay for. My procedure ran about $4000, but had it all covered by my Flex Spending Account, so after taxes it was closer to $3000. Avoid clinics that have a temporary/portable laser. The transportation of the equipment can cause problems with the laser's alignment.

One thing I never thought I'd miss though is the relief I would get from removing my contacts when my eyes were really tired. But that's a small price to pay!

 

[ackattacker]

I did mine in 2000 just before getting real serious about commercial aviation. I figured that if something went wrong that derailed my career at least I could still get into some other line of work. I took the opposite theory of t-bone. I went to a $499/eye place in Canada that ran you through like cattle. At the time, the Canadians had the newest technology since they didn't have to wait for the FDA approval. Also, I figured when a place does dozens of procedures daily they have the experience and procedures in place to make everything go smoothly.

Anyway it worked great and 10 years later my vision is still better than 20/20.

 

[Tweaker]

"I did mine in 2000 just before getting real serious about commercial aviation. I figured that if something went wrong that derailed my career at least I could still get into some other line of work. "

Same mhea. Surgery in 1998 (I beat CLR4APCH!). No issues, much happyness.

Still have the same 20/15 I had within weeks of operation. No night vision or other problems.

 

[Yodafly]

I also did mine in Canada in 2001. At that time price in the US was 5000. I got mine done for under 1000. The equipment in Canada was all new due to the gov. paying for it and the Doctors there had 10 times more corrections done then anyone I could find in the states. My results were 20/15 in both eyes, no halos. My eyes today are still 20/20 not quite as good as they used to be but still good.