Turner Eye Institute sponsored the Free LASIK competition to find someone who most deserves LASIK surgery in his/her life. The selection was difficult and the judges found many people worthy of this lasting change in their lives. The winner was Lee Hickinbotham Jr., a park ranger from Campbell, CA and father of two children.
Here is Lee’s winning story for Free LASIK:
I don’t want to say I deserve free LASIK. With all the sadness and destruction of lives in New Orleans I feel that I am blessed just to have a pair of glasses to wear.
I am a park ranger and I am in the field ninety percent of the time. I am constantly taking off my glasses and putting on sunglasses every time I leave the office. I have tried transitional lenses, but since the windshield of my patrol vehicle is UV protected, my lenses won’t darken.
I have also tried to wear contact lenses but I have dry eyes and a better part of my day is spent putting in re-wetting drops. I am often forced to remove my contacts at night because I get the star effect whenever there is light around. Wearing my glasses hinders my peripheral vision, so this can be a safety issue if I have a law enforcement contact go bad. While playing softball on the city league at nights, I struggle to see the ball against the glare of the lights.
I don’t deserve free LASIK but I would be greatly appreciative because I am trying to raise a family on a park ranger’s income and I don’t have a lot of extra money to pay for the LASIK surgery.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Lee Hickinbotham Jr., Campbell, California