Detroit meteorologist Jessica Starr took
her own life on Wednesday night while
the reason for her suicide is not
exactly clear her last social media
posts were about complications that she
was having as a result of LASIK eye
surgery there is a link between LASIK
complications and suicide although these
complications happen in a very small
percentage of surgeries joining us to
talk this morning about avoidance
prevention and management is dr. Arun
Galani he is an ophthalmologist with
Golani vision here in Jacksonville you
know I know when I called you yesterday
to discuss this one of the first things
that you wanted to point out is this
this is something that is very rare it
very rarely happens right so LASIK per
se Nike is one of the most successful
eye surgeries in the world it's
life-changing there is dual ooh but yes
there is an incidence of side effects
and complications that are possible
correct yeah it's very scary well you
know when you hear this I looked at some
of her social media postings she had the
surgery about five weeks ago she tried
to come back to work a couple of weeks
later she only made it to work for one
day and then turned around and went back
we don't know for sure if this is the
exact reason that she took her own life
you know a lot of her colleagues are
speculating there was there was more to
it but like I said you know it really
does bring this to light so what are
some of the things that we can do to
avoid any of these complications with
LASIK eye surgery so prevention always
is the most important thing that I talk
and teach about the most elegant of
information we can convey here on this
podium is there are over a dozen lasik
techniques many patients are not aware
of this many doctors are not able to
perform the whole spectrum I believe
having seen complications who come to us
from all over the world that is the main
thing that I want to educate people
about LASIK is not just one surgery
there are actually over 12 different
LASIK laser vision techniques LASIK
epi-lasik pyaar ka sa s BK our smile
relaxed etc let the surgeon decide
what's the right surgery for you now
from the surgeons side make sure that
they don't do only one LASIK they should
be able to provide the spectrum and
hence design the surgery to you each is
different so the highest level of
satisfaction and success is
cause the surgery was uniquely designed
to you with the technology and technique
what would your advice be about how you
know you're getting someone that is able
to do these different surgeries and
that's had you know a success rate and
hasn't had any issues before absolutely
nowadays everything is so transparent at
Google the world is so small so first
and foremost is like I say you know
going to the consultation with your eyes
wide open if I may is look through the
ads look through the deals blindness at
any bargain is not a great deal at all
so sit down talk to your doctor look eye
to eye the technique that you're
selected from a doctor is that the best
one for me why what is the long-term
implication of this if you're let's say
in the future going to have cataract or
presbyopia reading glasses and if
something goes wrong doctor can you fix
it
well and that's the next thing if
something does go wrong if you have a
complication from this what what can you
do i mean can that be fixed
yes so the good news is most of the
lasik complications can be corrected
back to 20/20 that is possible so I
don't want people to lose hope but again
prevention is so important look to the
advertising go investigate interview
your surgeon take your time don't do
this at lunchtime don't do this on the
weekend it's a very important
life-changing decision
I repeat LASIK is one of the most
successful eye surgical procedures in
the world and it's very positive though
the incidence of side-effects is very
very low it is unfortunate if someone
has that but yet the good news is it can
be corrected yeah and I think it's
important to note that dr. Gulani is
actually headed over to Paris and then
to Hong Kong to teach other
ophthalmologists from around the world
how to safely perform these surgeries
and how many surgeries would you say
you've performed thousands of this
points thousands at this point close to
20,000 have you ever had a serious issue
like we're discussing no blessed' we've
not had a serious issue like this at all
but because we are the referral center
for lasik complication Corrections I
have seen the profile and it's always
very very intelligent highly educated
patients and nothing wrong with them
it's just that there was some myths what
he call misalignment between how
diligent the surgeon was in evaluating
the patient not just coming in quickly
and doing surgery look at the anatomy
look at the physiology plan the optics
sit down with the patient then perform
the surgery and from the patient's point
of view is take your time
who your surgeon is and you know today
you don't have to go to your surgeon
just because he's in your backyard you
can fly anywhere for the best in the
world and do it thank you so much dr.
Galani would greatly appreciate it