Woman left in 'constant pain' after laser eye surgery and forced to spend £25k
A woman was left in "constant extreme pain" and had to spend £25,000 on follow-up treatments after a botched laser eye surgery.
Erin Orchard, 36, from Sydney, Australia, had the surgery in 2019 to avoid wearing glasses on her wedding day. However, since the procedure, she has been suffering from facial spasms, debilitating pain and extreme sensitivity to light. Erin's condition - neuropathic corneal pain - is a little-understood reaction to the surgery.
Erin describes the daily pain as "like glass stabbing into my eyes" and is urging others to think twice about getting the procedure. The pain comes in flare-ups, which are caused by small environmental changes such as wind or air conditioning.
She said: "Flare-ups are caused by things I never would have imagined, like wind, aircon or even if I'm too tired. It's hard to function or do day-to-day activities."
When the pain flares up she also gets severe facial spasms and mitigates these by getting botox treatments every three months. During the first two months after her surgery, the light sensitivity left her unable to work at her then-job in animal rescue or leave the house. She was forced to black out her windows using towels and cardboard.
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She shared: "In the beginning, I was trying to go out every day but after two weeks I stopped going out except for medical appointments. We had to black out our windows. We used cardboard and towels to do it in the bedroom. I also had to wear sunglasses inside for months even after that," she added.
Erin's parents flew from Brisbane to care for her when she fell ill. She says she wishes she hadn't had the surgery and says she would have thought twice had she known the risks. Although she is not blaming the clinic, she she feels she should have been given more warnings about the possible risks.
The effects of the surgery span beyond the physical for Erin. To pay for her treatments, Erin had to use all of her savings - AU$20k (£10,000) - that she and her now-husband Liam Orchard, 38, had put aside to buy a home.
Her treatments include regular ketamine infusions, anti-inflammatories and even eye-drops made from her blood and saline. Friends and family also chipped in to help with the treatments.
Erin revealed: "I've spent AU$50k on the treatment. It was basically all our savings to start a life together. We had around 20k saved up. The rest came from our income and our wonderful friends and family.
"We were hoping to save to purchase a property and start a family together. We wanted to start the journey after our wedding in 2019."
The numbers aren't clear on how many folks get corneal neuralgia after laser eye surgery. Dr. Anat Galor, who knows a lot about corneas and is a professor at the University of Miami, thinks less than 1,000 people in the US get it each year. Erin mentioned: "There are lots of stats but the most common I've seen is one in three."
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