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THE TORONTO STAR February 1, 1991 EYE SURGERY RESTORES 20-20 VISION By Phil Johnson John Caruso was 16 when he first had to wear eyeglasses. Like millions of others, he was myopic or nearsighted, meaning his distance vision was blurred. Over the years, Caruso's eyesight worsened to the point where he felt he was almost blind in his left eye, and his right eye was blurry. "I couldn't see in front of me," he says. Glasses and contact lenses were a necessity. While teaching full time at high school in York Region and working part-time as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of King City, Caruso applied to the North York Fire Department. He was turned down for a full-time position after failing a vision test. He then tried the Vaughan Fire Department, but was once again rejected because of poor eyesight. "At that time (1987), I had heard of a doctor who performed eye surgery to correct myopia," says Caruso. "I felt I had nothing to lose, so I went to see him." The doctor was Yair Karas, a Richmond Hill specialist who was working out of York Central Hospital. He was one of a handful in Canada performing Radial Keratotomy, an operation first developed in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. This operation, later studied and perfected in the U.S. in the mid-1980s, uses diamonds to make several slits in the cornea at the front of the eye. This flattens the cornea's curvature and allows light rays to reach the retina at the back of the eye. Caruso was worried about the operation and fretted about it for months, He had talked to his own ophthalmologist and others who had the surgery, including one fireman who swore by it. Karas told Caruso he couldn't guarantee 100 per cent success, but said he would fix his eyes. "It was remarkable," says Caruso. Just days after his operation three years ago at York Central, his vision began clearing up. He hasn't had to wear glasses since and his sight, once 20-200 in one eye and 20-80 in the other, is now 20-20 in both. Following the operation, which cost about $2,500, Caruso reapplied to the Vaughan Fire Department and was accepted. "The surgery wasn't covered by OHIP (because it is considered cosmetic), but it was worth every penny," he says. Caruso is one of about 100 firefighters and some 300 police officers who have had the RK procedure done by Karas. The operation, which utilizes diamonds to make the precise incisions, has allowed these men and women to pursue their professional careers. In total, Karas has helped correct the sight of about 2,000 people in the past six years. After starting out at York Central Hospital, Karas moved 21/2 years ago to his own location at the northwest comer of Yonge St. and Major Mackenzie Drive. One of three doctors in the Metro area (there are 10 in Canada) licensed to perform RK, Karas says that 90 per cent of his patients can do away, with glasses after the operation. "About 5 per cent do have to have a second procedure," he says. Karas himself still wears glasses because of near-sightedness. He explains that he has not had the operation because it would not allow him to see close up into a microscope in order to perform RK operations. Karas says many people still are unaware of the RK procedure, and he admits it is controversial, especially to some doctors. He feels they and the general public are misinformed about the results. |