Eye Surgery

The saga that led me to an eye operation this morning is chronicled below:

A visit to the optician a week or so ago triggered first a visit to the Western Eye Hospital, where their tests missed the fact that I had a detached retina, which then resulted in an emergency operation at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

This was the sequence of events:

1. I lost a pair of reading glasses in the summer and asked Focalpoint in Barnes to produce another pair. They produced a pair that proved unusable – and commissioned a second pair. They admitted fault in ordering the wrong lenses. When the new pair came through, they also didn’t work. So they offered me another eye test on Friday 27 August. The optometrist, Yolanda, recommended I go immediately to an eye hospital.
2. Since that was late in the day on Friday, the following morning, Saturday 27^th, I went to the Western Eye Hospital. After waiting a couple of hours (a reflection of how pressured they are) I was seen. The upshot was that while they saw problems with the membrane of the eye (ERM) that was dragging the retina off-centre, accounting for my blurred vision, they missed the detached retina. They recommended I seek an operation in 2-4 weeks.
3. Elaine, however, was not convinced. Over the Bank Holiday, she scoured the internet and checked with a friend who is a retired eye surgeon. She tracked down Mr Mahi Muqit at Moorfields, whose PA invited her to send across the notes. Mr Muqit responded that the notes did not suggest a detaching retina or emergency – but suggested I come across to have another set of scans in New Cavendish Street the next morning.
4. This I did, where a new set of scans were done. The result was that Mr Muqit identified a detached retina in my right eye, with two tears in the retina, as well as the ERM, and recommended surgery the following morning.
5. AXA told us that our insurance policy does not cover emergencies, so we ended up paying almost £10,000 for the operation, correcting the retinal damage and also, hopefully, tackling the membrane problem – which apparently included scar tissue from the cataract operations I had done by Mr David Spalton at the Edward IV Hospital back in 2008.
6. As one might expect, the treatment I received at Moorfields, albeit a bit delayed since I was tacked on the end of an already busy day of operations, was brilliant in every respect. The aftercare offered also seems excellent.