Botched Lasik Eye Surgery

Exclusive Mum Emma ‘Scarred For Life’ After Clinic Botch Laser Sight Operation

A MUM claims she was left scarred for life after going for a routine eye laser op at a high street optician.

Emma Reid, 33, was stunned when bosses at eye clinic Optimax blamed the bungled £1145 procedure on faulty machinery.

She suffered searing pain “like being stabbed in the eye” for two weeks after the treatment.

The faulty machine was used on hundreds of patients but Optimax insist no other customer was affected.

Typist Emma said: “I am furious my sight has been damaged because their machine wasn’t working properly. I did so much research before I decided to get laser treatment. I thought I had chosen the best. The irony is I even paid extra for ‘painless’ treatment.

“But I can’t even wear a contact lens in that eye any more as it makes my vision blurry. So I’m stuck wearing glasses again.”

Red-faced Optimax bosses admitted the equipment at their Aberdeen branch was to blame.

A blade which cuts a tiny flap in the eye stopped working and scratched the surface.

The company, who claim to be the UK’s No.1 laser eye treatment specialist, refunded the cost of the surgery. And they tried to make it up to Emma, of Monifieth, Angus, by offering her free laser eye treatment.

She said: “There’s no way I’d let them try again - I would be terrified.”

Emma booked Lasik eye surgery but what should have been a quick and pain-free op turned into an ordeal.

She said: “I went back and forward to the clinic for examinations.

“It’s a 130-mile round trip and I couldn’t see somy husband Niall had to take days off work to drive me.”

Optimax owner Russell Ambrose personally assured Emma that there should be no long-term complications.

But she says doctors at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital warned the scarring would not disappear.

Emma said: “Optimax eventually agreed to compensation of £300 but I don’t think that’s good enough. My daughter Lucy was just four months old but I couldn’t look after her.”

Optimax said: “The patient says she is scarred for life but that is not the case. These scratches can be rectified. Unfortunately, the patient does not want to come back to us.

“We will contact her again to see what more we can do.”

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Quick eye ops

10,000 people have laser eye surgery in Britain every year

It cures short-sightedness by removing microscopic layers of the cornea

Under local anaesthetic the process takes less than half an hour

Stars including Brad Pitt, Tiger Woods and Nicole Kidman have had the treatment

Competition for patients is fierce but prices vary from £395 per eye to £1500.

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