Police, Firefighters Get Most Eye Surgeries Under Program Set Up For Poor

The idea was to offer corrective eye surgery to Metro East residents who could not otherwise afford it. Then came the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The sponsors of the program - the Pepose Vision Institute in Chesterfield and the optometry school at the University of Missouri at St. Louis - expanded a Lasik eye surgery program to include police officers and firefighters as a way to honor first responders after 9/11. Previously, the program starting June 2001 had provided the surgery to poor residents in and near East St. Louis for a nominal fee.

Since the program was expanded, however, the Lasik surgery has become almost exclusively a service for first responders. Of the 188 surgeries performed, only five of the patients were poor Metro East residents.

Frustrated with the seeming lack of interest in the surgery, the program sponsors have abandoned efforts to reach out to those who were the original target for low-cost Lasik....

By Doug Moore ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH