by David Ball
Staff Writer
While sitting in the waiting room of the Jacksonville Eye Center in Riverside, 21-year-old Richard London saw a side of his mother he’d never seen before, specifically, the inside of her cornea.
The amazing images displayed on a 52-inch LCD monitor, while in a nearby room Dr. Robert Schnipper peered through microscopes and used computer-controlled lasers to restore Rhoda London’s sight through the most advanced lasik techniques available.
“It’s amazing how you can improve your vision like that,” the son said with an intense gaze. “You can’t do that with anything else, like hearing.”
But London wasn’t the first person to watch Schnipper in action. In fact, Schnipper and his colleague, Dr. Senthil Krishnasamy, host monthly live surgeries where potential patients, family and friends or those who just want to see something extraordinary, can watch a lasik surgery and decide if it’s the right way to correct their vision.
“The reason people are hesitant to have lasik is fear, fear of the unknown,” said Schnipper, who started the live surgeries a year ago after hearing about it being done by a doctor in the Midwest.
“When they watch it on the video, they see it better than I see it,” he continued, “and then they understand the process better.”
The shows begin with refreshments as the 30 to 40 guests find seats in front of the monitor and hear introduction and narration by Schnipper, while Krishnasamy begins the first process of using a laser to separate a flap on the outer eye to expose the inner cornea.
Then Krishnasamy joins the crowd and narrates the final stage as Schnipper laser-sculps the contour of the cornea so the patient properly focuses images and sees with near-perfect to perfect vision.
Office Manager Bonnie Myers said the crowd can sometimes get “antsy” when Schnipper uses tiny metal instruments to peel back the laser-cut eye flap before shaping the cornea, although, “we’ve never had anybody who couldn’t watch it,” she said.
The entire procedure lasts about 30 minutes, and guests can speak to the patient post-surgery to ask questions and find out what the procedure, which is almost entirely painless and performed while the patient is awake, is really like.
“They want to know why the patient chose us, did it hurt and things like that,” said Schnipper. “But when a patient comes out and says, ‘Oh my, I can see,’ ... it has an emotional impact.”
Schnipper also is routinely asked why he wears glasses. “I’m not a good candidate for lasik,” he said. “I have a funky astigmatism in my left eye.”
But for those patients deemed suitable for lasik, Schnipper said 92 percent end up with 20/20 or better vision, and although sight can improve immediately after surgery, full results are normally experienced the following day.
Schnipper said he hasn’t had any major complications during live surgeries, and the risk of any complication is less than 1 percent, thanks to decades of experience and state-of-the-art technology that gives him the confidence to perform these highly skilled procedures in front of a live audience.
According to Schnipper, The Jacksonville Eye Center was the second facility in the state to use the Intralase laser, which replaced the traditional method of using a razor to cut the corneal flap. The center was the first in Florida to combine the Intralase with the Allegretto Wave system that provides the safest and most precise shaping of the cornea.
“I don’t think anybody else is doing these (live demonstrations), and it’s because they don’t have the knowledge, the confidence and technology we have,” said Schnipper. “I’ll do it in front of a thousand people, and every one will come out perfect.”
Schnipper said the next live surgery is slated for sometime in September. For more information on Dr. Schnipper, Dr. Krishnasamy and the Jacksonville Eye Center, visit www.drschnipper.com or call 355-5555.