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Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Saturday February 26, 1999:
Dr. Barrie Soloway performed the first surgery of its kind to reverse the effects of presbyopia on New York actor Bob Gallagher. Mr. Gallagher is the first patient here to have this revolutionary surgery to free himself from his dependence on reading glasses. Due to FDA restrictions on this surgery in February 1999, the surgery was performed at the Ameri-Med American Hospital in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. A news crew from WNY1 TV flew down to Mexico to record this milestone in surgical vision correction. When reporter Cheryl Wills asked Mr. Gallagher if he was nervous, he replied "of course I am, this is a new type of surgery, and I am the first patient that I know who is having it done. But Dr. Soloway has operated on me before with LASIK to get rid of my distance glasses, and I trust him and his surgical abilities. I can't see anything up close without my reading glasses, and they are too much of a nuisance to use. I'd like to be able to read a script, then look up at another actor, and return to the script without the jump I get with the readers."
The surgery took less than 50 minutes and Mr. Gallagher reported no pain or discomfort during the procedure. Dr. Soloway inserted four small implants into pockets that he created in the white part of the eye. After the surgery, the eye was patched, and Bob relaxed in his hotel room for the rest of the day. During his first post-operative visit Mr. Gallagher impressed everyone with his newly restored reading vision. He was able to read the very bottom 20/10 line at 6 inches without any glasses.
During his next visit where he was seen in Dr. Soloway's New York office, he was able to easily read the New York Times, including the stock prices and classified ads. He was also reading the instructions on the insert for the medicine drops that he was using. All this without glasses!
Bob laughed when he told Dr. Soloway and his students during that visit that this was the first time he noticed that the date was incorrect on his watch. "I never bothered to reset it after a 30 day month because I could never see it" said Mr. Gallagher. "I was able to read the bus timetable for the first time that I can recall without glasses, so I helped everyone out at the bus stop. This surgery is amazing, when I was a kid they used to call me four-eyes. I guess now they'll have to call me bionic eyes".
Clinical trials are currently available at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary's Vision Correction Center where Dr. Barrie Soloway is the Principal Investigator for LASIK and SRP (surgical reversal of presbyopia). Dr. Soloway is now able to offer this surgery here during the first clinical trials to be performed in the United States.
If you would like more information about this surgery, or would like to find out how you can be less dependent on glasses, contact lenses or bifocals for:
- Myopia
- Astigmatism
- Hyperopia
- Presbyopia (with this revolutionary new surgery)
please e-mail us or call toll-free 1-888-NY LASIK
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