"This is incredible!"
03:06
This patient can't believe how much his vision has improved so quickly.
"It's Mind-Boggling."
02:09
This patient sees better now than he did before with glasses.
"I love it."
02:22
Prior to her surgery, this patient had poor near and distance vision.
Our Staff’s Stories
02:01
Our staff share how their vision has been improved by laser vision correction.
Dr. Columbus' Aunt's Story
05:10
Watch Dr. Columbus' aunt undergo monovision lasik and experience dramatic res...
DR. HILL: So this is my Aunt Gene. Hi Aunt Gene. How are you today?
MRS. GILLIGAN: Hi Dr. Hill. I'm fine.
DR. HILL: So what were we going to do today for your eyes?
MRS. GILLIGAN: You're going to make me able to see myself in the mirror without glasses.
DR. HILL: Do you have problems right now seeing in the mirror?
MRS. GILLIGAN: Absolutely, I cannot see myself.
DR. HILL: Tell me your story.
MRS. GILLIGAN: I am just, I'm legally blind I guess. Cannot see near, cannot see far, cannot see in the middle. It's caused me a lot of problems on my job. I'm a music teacher. I cannot read music. You know, when you teach music you have to be able to see near quickly, see far, plus I conduct so I need mid range. And I've been correcting my vision with near, and far contact lenses and I've lost my mid range, and we've done several things to try to correct that and it's just not working. And my students are totally disgusted with me because I'll say if they will start at measure 87 and they'll say Mrs. Gilligan, there is no 87, you know, and so I'm really looking forward to getting a correction. I don’t want to wear glasses and the contact lenses are a problem for me, so.
DR. HILL: Getting contact lens and dry eyes.
MRS. GILLIGAN: And my eyes, very dry, especially this past year has been a problem.
DR. HILL: And you're 100 percent dependent on glasses for everything.
MRS. GILLIGAN: 100 percent. And the thought occurred to me that really if I had to save my life reading, if I lost my glasses or you know, I didn't—I wouldn't—I would not be able to save my life because I wouldn't be able to read something, so.
DR. HILL: So pick up that card there and what number can you see clearly?
MRS. GILLIGAN: I can see the top, the top number.
DR. HILL: And how about below that? 874?
MRS. GILLIGAN: I was able to discern the sevens. I did not know that was an eight.
DR. HILL: Okay, turn the card around. So the 874 there is just about legally blind. To see 2843, that's what people see who are legally blind. Beyond that is perfect vision with the small print but you can't even see the small print.
MRS. GILLIGAN: Yeah, I could barely make out this 95 but I cannot-- The seven I could tell but the eight I, - - saying this is an eight I could not tell that.
DR. HILL: Okay. And with your music sheets, kind of like blurry like that right there. So can you see there? Or is it fuzzy? If that was your music, would that be fuzzy?
MRS. GILLIGAN: It's fuzzy. No, I cannot—yeah, everything would get doubled for me.
DR. HILL: Okay, so what you have been doing for the meantime has been using monovision contact lenses where the right eye is for distance and then reading vision is the left eye. And we're going to do your procedure today, finally, and we're going to do a monovision correction so you could get a good blend of vision for all your ranges. So hopefully the goal here is to get you driving for distance without glasses, so the students will be happy and you could teach all that wonderful music to them at the intermediate range, and hopefully they'll call them laptop readers—be able to hold something by your lap and read something part time but maybe the fine print you may need a reading glass part time.
MRS. GILLIGAN: That's okay.
DR. HILL: But you'd rather be unleashed, and be independent, and have a good clarity of vision for most of the ranges, and then I'm going to try to grant your wish today. So we're going to get started today and actually we're going to do the far sighted treatment today, and we'll see how you do after the procedure, and what your new vision looks like.
MRS. GILLIGAN: I'm raring to go.
DR. HILL: Okay, here we go.
MRS. GILLIGAN: Okay, thank you.
DR. HILL: You're welcome.
[sound fade]
[high background noise]
DR. HILL: Okay, Sandra Gene, so let's see how blurry you are right now. We're going to start the procedure. Just got some drops going into your eyes so… I know you can see the big print.
MRS. GILLIGAN: It’s all blurry. Yes, blurry.
DR. HILL: Can you see the words here?
MRS. GILLIGAN: Yeah, but they're all blurry.
DR. HILL: Okay. Can you see your favorite president?
MRS. GILLIGAN: Yes.
DR. HILL: Is he look cute?
MRS. GILLIGAN: Yes, very cute.
DR. HILL: Okay, so…
MRS. GILLIGAN: He's a blur.
DR. HILL: He's a blur too?
MRS. GILLIGAN: Yeah.
DR. HILL: Okay, well we'll see what can happen in five minutes, eight minutes. This type of surgery the procedure is eight minutes. And we'll see how things look afterwards.
MRS. GILLIGAN: All right.
DR. HILL: Okay so we're all done here. Sit up Auntie Gene. You're all done in eight minutes. Okay, you did really well. And it's going to be kind of blurry. Open up your eyes. Open your eyes, don't be afraid. Open. This probably what blurry underwater vision looks like swimming pool, it's going to clear up dramatically in five hours. You can already see better than you had before surgery. So let's see here. You see anything yet?
MRS. GILLIGAN: I see progress, and the visual photo on the.
DR. HILL: Take it closer.
MRS. GILLIGAN: Here we go.
DR. HILL: There you go. You couldn't do that before surgery.
MRS. GILLIGAN: No, this is great. Whoo.
DR. HILL: Hold on, we're not done yet. Tell me when it starts to get blurry. Read, read, read, read, read.
MRS. GILLIGAN: Closer. Even close to my eyes.
DR. HILL: Yeah, can you still see it?
MRS. GILLIGAN: Oh yeah.
DR. HILL: Look at the fine print.
MRS. GILLIGAN: There’s direction.
DR. HILL: Can you read the newspaper over here?
MRS. GILLIGAN: Yeah, - - tried yesterday to buy—
DR. HILL: And you couldn't do that. [crosstalk] Eight minutes you see a difference.
MRS. GILLIGAN: Yeah, that's—
DR. HILL: Your kids are going to love your new teaching skills. So, let’s show off your new eyes.
MRS. GILLIGAN: At ceremoniously squash my glasses.
DR. HILL: [laughs] Well, welcome to our new world.
MRS. GILLIGAN: Thank you very much Dr. Hill.
DR. HILL: My pleasure. Okay, you're one of my best patients ever.
MRS. GILLIGAN: Oh that's great.
DR. HILL: Okay.
You need to install Adobe Flash to play these videos.