Dr. Jafaar had no time to finish a first appointment and referred most all of my subsequent care over the next 81 days to his assistant, a young, female orthoptist. My vision in my right eye was changing frequently, which Dr. Jafaar knew about since I gave him copies of about six different prescriptions given me over the past two years. Dr. Jafaar saw me on my first and last visits of an unnecessary five, both times assuring me that it would be 18-20 years before I might need cataract surgery. I presented to him with strabismus (double vision), and a need for prism. His orthoptist recommended 11 prism, which Dr. Jafaar signed off on, although I showed both of them a prescription for 4 prism that had worked well in recent years. (Another doctor told me that the amount changes little over the years.) Dr. Jafaar insisted that I wear his orthoptist's prescription for two weeks, which I did although I struggled to see and was in considerable pain. At my insistence, Dr. Jafaar saw… me for the second and last time. At this appointment he told me that there was a "psychological component" as to why I could not tolerate her prescription; then he dismissed me as a patient. Within a month, despite Dr. Jafaar's claims that "an optometrist will initially prescribe too little prism, then charge you, then prescribe more, then charge you, then prescribe more....", I sought the help of an optometrist who, while recommending only 4 prism for me, noticed that my right eye had changed 3 diaopters in several years while the left eye stayed steady. Although he did not dilate my eye, these changes and an abnormality he saw without dilation caused him to suspect cataract. He believed this would explain my difficulty focusing my right eye during exams, which I experienced with Dr. Jafaar and his orthoptist. Soon after, the optometrist sent me to a cataract specialist who measured my glare vision at 20/400 (blind) and removed the "big" cataract from my right eye that had caused my vision changes. I scheduled with another strabismus expert who gauged my need at 3 -- not 11 -- and, after ending an excruciating Jafaar experience, undergoing cataract surgery in both eyes, and getting a correct prescription from another strabismus specialist, months later, I see well. Dr. Jafaar and his orthoptist made another mistake, as well. She wrote a prescription for computer glasses that an Apex optician immediately claimed could not possibly be correct since it was almost identical to my far-vision that at this time measured a myopic 7.5 in my right eye, alone. Together, we called the orthoptist who, noticeably perturbed, refused to change it. I returned the lenses to Apex, never used, since I could not sit far enough away from the computer to see. When I asked the orthoptist to correct the prescription, she said she would not be able to see me for a long time. Dr. Jafaar ignored my written concerns, writing back: "...it is a privilege to be seen by such a professional." When I saw Dr. Jafaar last, he changed that prescription, but 15 minutes after I left his office, he called me on my cell to ask me to return. He had neglected to add his prism count; Dr. Jafaar had signed off on yet another incorrect prescription. My prescription costs for lenses prescribed by Dr. Jafaar and his orthoptist totaled $1,104, which Dr. Jafaar refused to reimburse. At the end of it all, I wonder: "How did this man ever get the position that he holds at Children's Hospital?" and "Who is protecting from him the many non-English speakers and children that he sees?"
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