Additional information about my wife:
With more information transmitted by cooler heads, I now understand that it wasn't the entire cornea that was torn, but the top layer of the cornea, which has multiple layers. The cornea itself is now 100% healed, but there is still a lot of irritation. She is still seeing her Dr. daily. The physician's assistant in the ER had given her an antibiotic that was adding to that irritation, so her current Dr. switched her to a better antibiotic, as well as liquid Advil eye drops for the pain. She tested at 20/30 at 70% healed, and better than that (but not 20/20) at 1005 healed. She is wearing safety glasses - either in the form of sunglasses provided by the Dr. or a pair of my clear safety glasses - for most of her waking hours. It will be awhile (will hopefully find out soon exactly how long) before it is advisable for her to take unnecessary trips in the car due to the risk of damage if she is in an accident.
Along the way, we have also received contradictory information about whether the lasik may have made the eye more susceptible to injury. After reading the information above, I remain convinced that it did.
It looks like there has been some good discussion in this thread since my last post, with many posters showing a good understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of surgery. It is undeniable that many are happy with their surgery, and that it fits their risk/benefit analysis well. I started this thread to throw some more information into the risk/benefit analysis. For me, it is definitely not in favor of the surgery.
Regarding the use of a physician's assistant, I know some very smart people who are presently in PA school. One who comes to mind would likely make a good physician, but doesn't want to take that much time away from her daughter. I have also seen some good physician's assistants. The biggest problem I have with this particular PA is that she should have realized 1) when something was an emergency, and 2) when she was in over her head, and referred the case to an eye specialist for immediate treatment. At the very least, the ER attending physician should have become directly involved when my wife asked the PA if her eye would heal back to normal, and the response was "I don't know."
In any profession, one has to realize when one is in over their head, and when to get some additional help. I am an intellectual property attorney. I regularly refer out work that, although simpler than what I do every day, is not in my practice area, and is therefore better done by someone who does it every day.
Everywhere I drive around here, I see signs for optometrists and opthamologists. I can't imagine the hospital would have any difficulty finding some who would be happy to do an on-call rotation for some extra $ (paid for by the patient when they are actually called in).
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