"St. Pauls eye unit"

Anything else?

I suffer with a phobia about having my eyes touched. I was scheduled for diabetic retinopathy laser to be performed. I explained that last time I needed it they had toput me under general anesthetic. They offered to sedate me this time, I said Iwould try but it was a bad phobia which sends me into full blown panic attacks. After I was sedated I was asked to sign a waiver (shouldnt that be done prior to drugs being administered?). Before the laser started I was disscussing what had happened last time. The woman performing the laser said what changed (as in why was I here not anesthetized), her colleague who was watching piped up and said "you grew up?" So accoording to her I was being a child last time? I stuck it out as long as I could but the panic attack eventually came and I started crying and couldnt stop. I could not sit there any longer I was feeling as if I was going to be sick, so we stopped. I was then told she would speak to the professor to see how to proceed. Around 20 minutes later I was taken into another room and spoken down to and asked what the problem was? The professor couldnt seem to understand that I had a severe phobia. I would have thought the hysterical crying, shaking of my head and the repeating of the phrase " I have to go I have to get out of here" might have given him some clue. Instead this professor chose to compare me to another patient, that had down syndrome and wouldnt even go in the laser room. Why did he feel it necessary to tell me the only patient he had this much trouble was a mentally handicapped person? None of these so called medical professionals could even be bothered to introduce themselves. As I left the professor said we would talk when I had calmed down. I have not heard anythingsince. There were a few more bothersome points but you get the general idea of this complaint. I was furrious after I had sorted my hypo reaction, calmed down, and disscussed the matter with my husband who was a witness to much of the above.