By January 2025, five months after the surgery, Ryan ended his life. His final message read:
“I can’t take this anymore. LASIK took everything from me.”
His family is adamant that it was not a preexisting mental health issue that led to his death, but the unrelenting pain and isolation caused by post-surgical complications.
“People will say it’s mental health,” Tim said. “But I know my son. Before the surgery and after were two completely different people.”
A Controversial Procedure
Ryan’s case has ignited fresh scrutiny around LASIK, a procedure performed between 700,000 to 800,000 times a year in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health.
