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# Lasik-linked suicides raise alarm as former US regulator and doctors speak out
- URL: https://goodoil.news/lasik-linked-suicides-raise-alarm-as-former-us-regulator-and-doctors-speak-out/
- Published: 2025-06-01T00:38:53.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-01T01:46:10.000Z
- Description: “Pain, pain and more pain…”
- Author: Centrist
- Tags: News

Summarised by [Centrist](https://centrist.nz/?ref=goodoil.news)

**A 26-year-old police officer from the United States, Ryan Kingerski, ended his life five months after undergoing Lasik, blaming the surgery in a handwritten note: “I can’t take this anymore. Lasik took everything from me.” He had been suffering from chronic headaches, double vision, and extreme eye pain.** 

**Other high-profile cases, including that of Detroit meteorologist Jessica Starr and Canadian father Paul Fitzpatrick, also left suicide notes linking their anguish to Lasik complications.**

In the US, the surgery was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1999 and is still marketed as having a complication rate below 1 percent. But former FDA official Dr. Morris Waxler – who originally helped greenlight the procedure – has since attempted to reverse that decision. His own review put complication rates at 10 to 30 percent.

Starr’s post-surgery diary chronicled her physical and mental decline over two months. Fitzpatrick described two decades of stabbing eye pain, writing: “Pain, pain and more pain…” 

Other victims include Gloria McConnell and Paula Cofer, who says she knows of 40 Lasik-related suicides and now runs a support group warning of long-term risks.

While the FDA does list possible side effects – glare, halos, double vision, and debilitating dryness – critics say these warnings are buried beneath a marketing campaign that has generated billions in revenue. 

[**Read more over at The Daily Mail Online**](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14741503/lasik-eye-surgery-patients-police-officer-suicide-ryan-kingerski.html?ito=native%5Fshare%5Farticle-nativemenubutton&ref=goodoil.news)

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