How Many Patients Have Committed Suicide After LASIK or Because of Dry Eye Pain?

Patient with dry eye pain are often very frustrated and angry doctors cannot find a cure. They often feel abandoned by the medical community as many eye surgeons do not know how to treat dry eye and sometimes run off to the next surgical patient. Family members also stand hopelessly not knowing how to help.

The death of Jessica Love, the Fox news broadcaster sheds light on the despair many patients with dry eye pain or neuropathy feel.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-meteorologist-jessica-starr-commits-suicide-20181213-story.html?fbclid=IwAR0RmPmu9rdXQA7gEck2yh1fcF3mK1PbE3oW4zDAPAPw8Qtcw_p0If9qIpQ

But she is not the first. There have been other patients who have felt a deep sense of despair in their journey to find pain relief. The total from suicide from LASIK or PRK has not been published. I know of at least 5 cases from other eyeMDs and what is on the web.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/some-link-depression-failed-lasik/


Many more patients feel the constant despair of dry eye pain/neuropahty.

We know that LASIK can lead to a rare corneal neuropathy that can be debilitating. So can meibomian gland disease, Accutane use, autoimmune disease, and excessive electronic screen time.

We have better treatment options that these patients need to try. We have more hope that these treatments will work.

We recently had 2 patients use Cord Blood Serum, for instance, which brought their 10/10 eye pain to close to a 0/10 in both eyes. We need more research performed on why some corneas develop neuropathy from external stressor, like LASIK or Accutane, and others do not.

We need urgent research on the Trojan Horse of Electronic Screens in our classrooms to see its effect on meibomian glands and dry eye signs and symptoms before a tsunami of dry eye patients as young as 6 years old hit our doors.

There is a great deal of hope in treating eye pain and neuropathy. If we can send a man to the moon, we can find better treatment options for debilitating eye pain and neuropathy! We can do more to help these patients! We must! Our future generation of children depends us figuring this out.