Testimonials

Dear Dr. Najafi:

It is wonderful! I am as happy as I was when, at about age 9, I got my first glasses and I told my Mom on the way home from the doctor’s office that I could see the leaves on the trees… they were no longer green blurs. Now, after 62 years of corrected vision I’m enjoying the wonder of the opposite…. I can see without my glasses! After my second cataract surgery I can now wake up in the morning, open my eyes and see! Everything is in focus, colors are clear and bright, and white is white! It is wonderful!

My vision is very important to me, and your name is on my list of people who have made a big difference in my life.

Dr. Najafi, thank you for fixing my eyes. And thank you for all your years of sacrifice, dedication, study, and hard work to be able to do that. And thank you for your kind and careful manner while you did it. Thank you for being so capable and for knowing so much and for using your special talents to help me. And thank you for your wonderful, steady and hands. I marvel at them every time I see them and see how well you use them to my benefit. They are a gift!

Thank you!

Marion Wiener

My name is Mehrzad Shamsian, and I’m 58 years old. About ten years ago, I realized my vision had somewhat deteriorated over time. For a few years, I did nothing about it but my vision got to the point where I had to visit my family’s optometrist. I was given prescription glasses, which I hated and refused to wear except in times of extreme necessity. About three years ago, upon a check-up visit, my optometrist suspected I suffered from cataracts. She suggested that I go see an eye specialist (Dr. Najafi).

Dr. Najafi confirmed my previous doctor’s diagnosis. She recommended surgery on both my eyes. Two years ago in 2006, she operated on my left eye and last year she did the other. I now use my left eye mostly for reading, without the help of glasses. My right eye is fitted with a restore lens, which I use for intermediate and distance vision.

Thanks to my operations, I currently have 20-20 vision. I can confidently say it is perhaps back to what it was when I was in my 20’s! I couldn’t have asked for more.

Thanks, Dr. Najafi! You saved my vision…. And my life!

April 30, 2008

Dear Dr. Najafi-Tagol,

You gave me the gift of sight by removing the cataract in my right eye and replacing it with an intraocular lens!

I was born severely nearsighted 68 years ago. My parents were very concerned. They drove me from Mill Valley to the best ophthalmologist in San Francisco. I spent many years, many days and many hours in a darkened room with dilated eyes, behind elaborate examination instruments, throughout my childhood. President Eisenhower went by the ophthalmologist’s office one day in an open car; I could not see him. I wore very thick glasses through grade school. I attempted to wear contact lenses for short periods of time (2 hours) from 1953 through 1957 when I was in high school. My eyes watered as though I had sand in them.

I became very interested in studying the eye in my physiology and chemistry classes and gave my senior oral thesis on the history and making of contact lenses. My optometrist at the time, Dr. Gerald Belanger, arranged a tour for me of a contact lens laboratory in Richmond, CA. In 1972 the gas-permeable, rigid, contact lens made it possible for me to wear lenses for distance during my waking hours, therefore needing only reading glasses and computer glasses. I wore them for 36 years, until 2 months ago when Dr. Bob Levine, my optometrist, referred me to you to evaluate the progression of my cataracts. You are not only experienced, skilled and precise, but you and your staff made me feel at ease. I easily made my decision to have my cataract removed and replaced by an IOL.

I now have 20-20 vision in my right eye! I am so sorry my parents weren’t alive to see the joy I am experiencing. My husband and I went for a walk, less than 24 hours after my surgery. For the first time in my life I saw the true colors of poppies, lupine, grasses, trees, the sky; and, details in rocks and the bark on trees. Leaves have sharp edges; rocks are not brown but a rainbow of gorgeous earth tones.

I am a photographer. A friend, also a photographer, and a patient of yours said, “It’s like closing the F-stop 2 stops.” My vision is so sharp, it almost gets in the way of my doing much; I have to stop and inspect things I’ve never seen before, like the edges on the gravel in the driveway. It is like putting an image in Photo Shop and clicking on the “Sharpen” filter.

On a negative note: our windows and floors are dirtier; and I have more scars and wrinkles than I thought!

Most Sincerely,
Marilyn Bagshaw

Pete Bowser,3rd Ave,San Rafael,Ca,94901

December 4, 2009

Dear Dr. Najafi-Tagol,

One day last April my left eye was very red which brought me to your office for an examination.

You diagnosed my situation as a mere broken blood vessel. But, at the same time, you mentioned that I did have a cataract in each eye. Neither was a problem but removal of these cataracts would greatly improve my vision.

In June you operated on my left or right eye. In August you operated on my other eye. I confessed to a definite nervousness prior to my first visit to MGH [Marin General Hospital]; you allayed my fears. Both operations went as you said they would! Absolutely no problems whatsoever!

So I write to simply express my sincere thanks! My vision is greatly improved. Your skills as an eye physician are very much appreciated.

I wish you and your staff a very happy holiday season!

Regards,
Pete Bowser

In January of 2008 I visited the local EYEXAM office for a routine eye
exam and, as it turned out, a new set of prescription lenses. At that time Doctor Dieu Vuong indicated that I would, "some day"; be a candidate for cataract surgery.

Two years later I returned, for the same reasons and Doctor Vuong reminded me of her previous evaluation and counseled me on what to watch out for.

In October of that year my personal evaluation indicated that the three symptoms I had been cautioned about had come to pass. I was developing some loss of depth perception, oncoming headlights were "haloing" and, the clincher, I noted spots appearing on my up close readings.

I visited Dr. Vuong again and she took baseline measurements. The diagnosis upon my return, three months later, indicated that I was now a candidate for corrective surgery. I was referred to a surgeon, Doctor Kathryn Najafi-Tagol at the Eye Institute of Marin. Dr Najafi, confirmed the diagnosis.

After much counseling, measurements and a series of preparatory drops my right eye was scheduled for surgery on March 3rd. On that morning the paperwork took longer than the preparation and the preparation took longer than the surgery. I remember talking to the anesthetist and the next thing I knew I was sitting up - operation complete!

My vision allowed me to walk to my first post op evaluation the next morning, and those examinations and measurements indicated my vision was such that I could have legally driven without the (right) corrective lens. Subsequent examinations and evaluations showed continuous improvement and allowed scheduling of the left eye for March 31 st.

I had been a bit apprehensive going in for the first operation - it was, after all, surgery, and on my eye at that! With the right 'eye experiences behind me I had no apprehension whatsoever going in to do the left eye - in point of fact I was anxious to have it done!

Except that I was slightly more aware of the procedure, this operation went just the same as the other. The next morning I am afraid I offended the professional sensitivities of Dr. Najafi's staff by offering to remove the now unneeded and obsolete prescription lenses from the frames with a hammer. They removed them, undamaged, to donate for others in need.

The right eye recovery was virtually instantaneous. I could see perfectly the day after the surgery. The left eye took a bit longer, maybe a week, but the end result was the same - perfect vision. I have tested out at 20/20 vision which I am told is considered "perfect". I was a bit skeptical of remarks that I would see things I almost didn't know existed - but that is the case.

My distant and intermediate visions are so sharp and acute that, as I had been warned - I can see things I didn't know existed. As an example, the highway warning and advisory (lighted) signs had always been quite clear to me, appearing as clear cut lines. They are not lines -- they are a series of bulbs that now clearly appear as a dotted row of bulbs, as apposed to the previous straight lines. My close in vision is fine as well, and, per Doctor Najafi's recommendation, I wear a pair of inexpensive 2.0 super market "cheaters" to raise and outline the print for reading purposes. I wear them almost all the time I am reading, I am a bit uncomfortable without them. Writing this report I am working at a computer screen, without the cheaters, distance about 15 inches, and the print is extremely sharp.

I am scheduled for my "final/final" examination two months from today (on August 1 st) and have every confidence that nothing will change and thus I will be able to, in good conscience, hand this report to Doctors Najafi and Vuong as a clear cut recommendation of their care of my vision, in general, and the surgical procedures used on my eyes in particular.

P.E. Buttner
August 1,2011