> In 4,000 years, cataract surgery went from a crude procedure involving thorn instruments to a 20-minute operation with a 95 percent clinical success rate.
I did go “yikes” a bit at 95%, a 1 in 20 failure rate is pretty rough when its about your eyes
Anecdote: my mother in law had cataracts in both eyes in her mid 70s. She went to NYC to have the procedure done because there was a doctor there she was told was very good.
She had one eye done and immediately after said: something is wrong -- I can't see anything in that eye. They hushed her and said, don't worry, in a couple days after giving your eye a bit of time it will be good as new. Well, she remained blind in that eye for the rest of her life. She never had the other eye done for fear that she'd end up totally blind and lived another 12 or so years with one cataract-clouded eye.
She didn't sue -- she was a "I don't want to make a fuss" kind of personality. She did follow up with them a few times in that first year, but they kept putting her off and downplaying that she really couldn't see more than vague light and shadow in that eye. Eventually she stopped contacting them.
Just guessing, but likely “clinical success rate” here doesn’t mean “didn’t make it worse” but actually means “improved the underlying condition significantly”.
I waited until I was mostly blind in my left eye and the right was maybe 6-9 months behind, assuming it continued to progress consistent with the left.
Driving at night had already been out-of-the-question for a while, and soon I would be unable to work, at least without learning an entirely new physical workflow.
At that point 1/20 is great. (It all worked out very well for me.)
I did go “yikes” a bit at 95%, a 1 in 20 failure rate is pretty rough when its about your eyes