The LASIK Vision Institute

I had LASIK surgery here last week. I’m seeing ²⁰⁄₁₅ now and could not be happier. Very reasonable pricing (though not even close to what is advertised on their website). The LASIK vision institute is run very much like a business, so if you expect a lot of one on one attention, this is not the place for you. However, I found the staff to be very professional and efficient. Less than 3 weeks from consultation to surgery. Highly recommended.

I can’t be happier with my decision to go to the LASIK Vision Institute. The staff is so warm and friendly. Dr Garrana’s resume’ speaks for itself. I have better than 20 – 20 vision now and I have zero complaints about anything. Thank you LASIK Vision Institute!

I recommend Lasik vision to anyone who wants to change their life. I walked in unable to see the hour hand on my watch and walked out able to see even the second hand impressively. The clinic has an amazing family like feel to it. I didn’t feel like a patient, but part of a family. Every staff member from clerical to nursing gave me exceptional care. The doctors are awesome and extremely professionals. I had an excellent experience, they know what they are doing. I encourage anyone to go and see for yourself what I mean. The prices are reasonable. They are definitely number one in my book. It’s convenient to get there. There isn’t anything I can say negative about this place. Thank you so much!
Felix Castro

I had wanted to get this done for AGES. We’re talking years & years. I was stuck with glasses or contacts since high school & very frustrated with that. It seemed like LASIK was not only out of my reach financially but way too risky in terms of my health (the average cost was around $ 5,000−6,000 & I’d heard about people still needing corrective lenses after surgery or seeing starbursts and having problems with night vision). My mother was convinced that if I got this done, I’d end up being permanently blind instead of relying on contact lenses and having a slight astigmatism in one eye.
One day, after seeing a Groupon deal on this that I couldn’t afford I decided to look into this facility and ask some questions. I read good things online & decided I may as well check out the free consultation to see if I even qualified for LASIK in the first place. I was very concerned that I wouldn’t even be able to get it by some freak of nature (as I’ve been unable to do a lot of things or had problems in life b/​c of little freak of nature incidents/​events/​realities like not being able to tan & so forth).
Well, I was in for a shock when I got the consultation and was told I was the perfect candidate for LASIK. They don’t do air puffs to determine if you have glaucoma, they do their own comprehensive eye exam to see if you are eligible for this & are more than happy to answer any questions you have. This staff made me feel there’s no such thing as a stupid question. In fact, the woman who was working with me at the consultation told me she’d had the procedure herself so told me exactly what to expect if I decided to get it.
The big sticking point after this was cost. I figured there was no way I could get an installment plan that would permit me to do this & avoid ever increasing contact lens costs (particularly in light of the impending loss of medical insurance to get affordable eye exams). I was wrong so in light of that, it was time for me to take that offer & finally get it done.
Preparing for this is a bit of a cash outlay and you’re going to have to give up your contacts. If you’re not running low on them, you might want to wait on this until after you’re running short on them. I’ve yet to figure out a way to get rid of them & get some of the cost spent back on them, which is a huge pain in the behind. Also, it’s a good idea to have someone escort you home the day after surgery; I didn’t expect to have such a person but Fate ended up smiling on me & giving me that escort.
You’ll be waiting a while for surgery so bring something to do or read. You also pay a small deposit that goes toward the cost to hold your spot for surgery. While it won’t be the greatest 15 minutes of your life & you’re going to need to be careful with your eyes for a month or so, if you end up getting LASIK Dr. Garrana and the staff here are a great choice and facility since they know what they’re doing.
After my last check up (a few months later), the doctor said my eyes didn’t even look like I’d had the surgery. I didn’t get starbursts or night vision issues or any problems at all; in fact my eyes are better than ²⁰⁄₂₀ now. It feels like I never needed glasses or contacts though not very long ago, I did have a need for them. I have absolutely no complaints here & nothing has gone wrong for me thus far.

I got my Lasik surgery here and it was the worst experience ever! I went in for a pre-​exam to make sure I was eligible for the surgery and it took over 1.5 hours wait (which I expected from prior reviews). However, I thought I would meet the surgeon but instead it was the assistant who gave me the exam. Which I thought was very unprofessional but I thought maybe I would meet the surgeon the day of surgery and she would go through everything with me then. NOPE. First off, on the day of the surgery there was a 3hour wait because they booked so many patients that day… i felt like I was in a pig farm. They would escort you from one room to another. it was very nerve wrecking. And on top of that, I didn’t meet her until they escorted me into the surgery room and she had NO BEDSIDE MANNER whatsoever! It was so quick and frightening, right away they told me to lay down and the surgeon didn’t even look at me and ask how I’m doing or cared. She didn’t tell me when she was about to perform the operation, she even told me to stop blinking and stare into the light in a stern manner. At one point, i felt a lot of pressure in my eye and I was getting very nervous because i didn’t know if I was suppose to feel the pressure. So I asked «is this normal… i feel a lot of pressure and its starting to hurt» and she didn’t answer me and i started blinking which she got very annoyed about and told me «please STOP moving».
After it was all over, she just told me to get up and said «youre done» then turned to her assistant and asked for the next patient. The patient came in while I was still getting out of the bed which i thought was sooooo ridiculous and unprofessional. The nurse was rushing me out …
I went back the next morning for post op which they told me i have ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision (and again it was the assistant not the doctor who saw me). Since the first post op, they never called me again to see how i was doing or whatsoever. They honestly don’t care about their patients… I dont regret getting the operation… its been amazing to see without my glasses but i def. do regret getting my operation with LASIK INSTITUTE.

I got LASIK done here recently and almost immediately after, I had ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision with hardly any side effects. So for that, this place was great — it got the job done for a low price (I had the Groupon). The consultation was thorough which I appreciated and made me feel good about going here.
As for the procedure itself though, this place is kind of like a lasik sweatshop. The day of the surgery, you go into the office and they make you wait for hours and hours for no reason. They aren’t prepping you or anything, they just make you wait. They tell you it’s because the doctor is running late but clearly she planned to come in hours after everyone’s appointment time. So then, once she gets there it is serious go-​time and she will only spend a few minutes with each patient. If you are looking for some sort of doctor-​patient relationship, this is NOT the place. When I got into the operating room, the surgeon told her assistants that they weren’t moving fast enough. And then while I was being operated on, she yelled at her assistant for turning off her light! It was pretty ridiculous and I was very much freaking out.
After the procedure though, the other doctor (not sure of his name) checks on your eyes and performs all of the post-​op appointments and consultation. He is super super nice and informative. Andrea is also great. It seemed like everyone else that works there though has no idea what they are doing.
Anyway, this place gets 3 stars because they got the job done — but they can definitely work on their customer service.

I had custom lasik done by Dr. Garrana back in March. Overall, I’m very happy with the results so far. The only complaints I have so far after 1 month is dry eyes in the morning and some starbursts from white lights while driving at night. Both are tolerable and have improved over the month.
I’ll say that Dr. Garrana is very good at what she does, but what I hate is that she doesn’t do the follow up appointments with you the next day. It’s done with the optometrist there. As a physician myself, I feel that the surgeon should at least stick around to observe their handiwork, but that’s just my opinion.
The staff there is friendly, but in the end it’s just a big sales pitch. With strangely a huge push to sell these puncta plugs (which when I spoke with the surgeon directly are in fact endorsed by her). I ended up getting them in the end when they got discounted to 100 for both, but I’m not entirely sure if they really are making that big of a difference or not.
Probably the best aspect of this whole experiment was my interaction with Qualsight. the rep (Chris Thompson) was very friendly and was able to answer my questions better than most of the staff did.
Final breakdown:
Surgeon: B
Staff: C+
Qualsight: A

So I had PRK on February 28, 2015. My vision was horrible, I mean seriously (for example, if a freak wind came and blew off my glasses I would have to just pitch a tent right where I was and wait for someone to rescue me. I could be around the corner from my house and STILL not be able to find my way home without my glasses smh). I was really scared but the staff did a great job relaxing and insuring me that everything would be okay. My recovery was slow (and painful the first three days) due to me having PRK (removing the layer over the cornea) instead of Lasik (creating a flap instead of totally removing the layer).
Now looking back I believe I made the right choice and have no regrets whatsoever! I’m seeing ²⁰⁄₂₀ and I swear everything looks like its HD (seriously is this how the world looks! It’s soo freakin’ beautiful. I’m glad I get to truly enjoy it now that I can see it).
Minus One star: The wait is sooooooooo long. I’m here for a follow up and yet I’m waiting for an hour or two. Then after waiting the nurse (I doubt she’s really a nurse) calls me in the room, checks my vision and then tells me to wait for the doctor. After 15 — 20 minutes of waiting I walked out and just rescheduled for the following week. I get there the following Saturday and guess what, I waited another hour after being assured that it wouldn’t be a long wait. Smh!
Overall: I’ll be back (I really have no choice, I have to do my three month follow-​up)

The place is pretty good. As far as customer service, Andrea Benjamin (consultant) is not the person to go to. Although she may come off ultra genuine during your first consultation, it’s just a sells pitch. She rarely responds to her emails. She pacifies her clients by telling them what they want to hear. In general, it’s difficuly to reach her. If you are looking to get questions answered within 24 hours, I would suggest you contact someone else from the office.

DR. Garrana, Ashley n Andrea are the best U will feel welcomed and totally comfortable n Brooklyn with this crew. I went n on 1÷15÷15 for for a free consultation for lasix eye surgery, on 1÷17÷15 I had custom lasix. Yes, from the front door to the operating room everyone was so nice, it was an unbelievable the experience. By 1÷18÷15 I had ²⁰⁄₂₀. I did not have any pain at all post nor pre. No more contacts or eyeglasses This was the best gift I ever gave myself… The price is affordable!!!

Update 8÷29÷14: No issues, went in for a post-​op follow up and my vision is now ²⁰⁄₁₅.

The Lasic Institute spams my email 2 times a day EVERY DAY. I have requested that I be removed from their email list several times to no effect. I note that their email street address I s in Canada which essentially deprives me of legal redress against them. However, the company itself is doing business in the US, which will allow me, as an attorney, to seek whatever legal remedies are available to me. Running a shoddy email advertising campaign, I certainly would not entrust my eyes to them.

Recently I went in for a Lasik PRK procedure. The PRK procedure is more invasive than the «regular» Lasik procedure and takes longer to recover from (1 to 3 months) but in the long run is considered safer and appropriate for people like me with incredibly bad vision (–8.5).
Anyway, my favorite part was the Surgery itself. I know it sounds scary, but the experience is anything but. For each eye, the laser surgery itself was just 54 seconds. It was a great, fast, completely comfortable experience. I was able to walk out of the experience without any difficulties.
Now to be honest, the next week after the surgery was difficult. PRK (unlike regular Lasik) takes some time before your vision develops. Therefore for the first 2 weeks, things were still blurry. But by the third week, I was able to experience ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision without the help of glasses — which is in my opinion, amazing considering my vision prior to the procedure.
In addition to the surgery itself, I was very happy with their customer support. They helped me promptly when I lost one of my eye drop medications by directly working with the pharmacy to send me a new prescription and made themselves available for my questions and concerns.
Overall, I’d highly recommend their center for Lasik and PRK procedure.