The Right Hand Man

Correct at the time of writing in 2009. Zach no longer works at the clinic.

Eyes are like finger prints – not, of course, because we have them sprouting ET-like on the end of a single digit – but because they are unique.

The odds on finding two people with the exact same prescription are quite rare; but when you add into the equation the structure and shape of the eye – its curvature and corneal thickness  as well as all its other wondrous complexities – then you are talking of odds as  long as millions to one against.

And the chances of those four eyes turning up at the same Laser Eye Surgery clinic are probably impossible. This is just one of the crucial reasons why the role of the laser technician – as the eye surgeon’s right hand man – is so important.

Zach Dickeson, laser technician at the London Vision Clinic, attempted to explain his job to me from the basement working space he had just moved into at the fabulous new Harley Street premises.

I had been listening in to him running through long lists of numbers dotted with points and prefixed by pluses and minuses with surgeon Mr. Glenn Carp. Zach’s three computer screens, covered with what appeared to my untrained eye to be unintelligible hieroglyphics, confirmed what I was hearing: this is definitely very precise and complex stuff.

In an exceedingly simplified nutshell, all these statistics are programmed in to the two laser machines reflecting the patient’s specific vision requirements ahead of Laser Eye Surgery. These numbers are programmed, double checked and then double checked again between each procedure.

Zach comes from Ontario, Canada and worked in archaeology before joining the London Vision Clinic team.  “Although it was science-related it was not so heavy on the maths”, he explained.

He makes no secret of the fact that during his tenure at the LVC he has learned his skill “from the ground up “ and that much of his work is specific to the clinic and Dr Dan’s pioneering techniques.

So what qualities does Zach feel are most needed for his job?

“That would probably be attention to detail”, he said.

Like all the people I have met from the LVC, Zach not only loves his work but clearly excels at it.

“Everyone sets and expects an extremely high standard here and – even when I am tired at the end of a long day – I go home with a great feeling of work satisfaction and a job well done.”