If you have myopia and your vision isn’t 20/20 you may have been inclined towards getting LASIK surgery. It is marketed as an easy surgery with less downtime. In no time, your vision will be restored, and you’ll be able to see perfectly like others. If only this were true!
LASIK is now being labeled as “biggest scam yet marketed” to people in good health, with weak eyesight to get perfect vision. This has come to light as a Pennsylvania police officer died by suicide. The 26-year-old was left with several complications post-surgery that left him in discomfort, and he ended up killing himself.
This is not just an event connected to the surgery, as another patient said she debated suicide for over two years after her surgery in 2000. Another suicide case was of a Detroit meteorologist, Jessica Starr, who blamed LASIK behind her decision to end her life, as reported by The New York Post.
While the surgery is marketed as 95-99% safe, that seems like a lie as more cases with complications are coming to light. One patient claimed to know 40 individuals who took their lives as they were unable to cope with vision issues and pain even after surgery.
A mother and father in Penn Hills say they’re wading through an ocean of grief right now, but they’re speaking out to honor their son’s final days. They say he took his own life following debilitating complications from LASIK eye surgery. Ryan’s story airs at 5:45 @KDKA pic.twitter.com/lEOkTTgKDP
— MEGHAN SCHILLER (@MeghanKDKA) May 19, 2025
According to the police officer, Ryan’s parents, he had double vision, dark spots, and constant headaches. He used to fight through streaked vision and cobweb shapes after his surgery. Many LASIK surgeons assure patients that it is safe and that only 1% of patients get complications. However, several studies reveal this to be untrue.
People think that the FDA approves the surgery and over 10 million patients in America have gotten it done, so it must be safe. The irony is that the Former FDA advisor, Morris Waxler, regrets approving the surgery. He’s 89 now and advises people to not get it. He has been vocal about the procedure’s dangers since 2010. He says that he had concerns and questions about the surgery but the doctors overpowered the decision.
Furthermore, he told CBS that he analyzed the data, and the complication rate is up to 30%, which is too high for the surgery to be even approved. He reiterates that people with healthy eyes who just need glasses come for surgery and leave with more damage. The surgery removes the nerves and turns their cornea into weird shapes. Moreover, patients experience prolonged pain and visual discomfort.
LASIK is the most reckless choice to make once you understand the presence and function of non-visual photoreceptors within the eye, especially as it relates to their inextricable relationship with neurotransmitter production
There’s a reason why it’s been strongly associated… https://t.co/ETEYYLsrJp
— Zaid K. Dahhaj (@zaidkdahhaj) May 18, 2025
This is why you may have almost never seen a LASIK surgeon without glasses. If the surgery had been so safe, they would have gotten it done themselves. The FDA website discusses the surgery’s complications, but the American Refractive Surgery Council deems the surgery safe, and people go for it the most to correct vision.
The patients are not familiar with the complications until they suffer from them. The surgery is marketed in such a way that people feel safe getting it. Paula Cofer is another advocate against LASIK who runs a support group on Facebook for those who have LASIK procedures gone wrong. Dr. Edward Boshnick, who helps people with LASIK complications with a scleral lens, calls LASIK a BS multibillion-dollar business procedure. He emphasizes alternative solutions to vision issues.
“It’s the biggest scam ever put on the American public. And it’s a multibillion-dollar business,” he says.
