Police Officer Suffers Tragic End After Lasik Eye Surgery Goes Wrong

A policeman in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, killed himself after suffering complications from his Lasik eye surgery.

Officer Ryan Kingerski, 26, went in for the routine procedure in August 2024, when something went terribly wrong, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh reported on April 23.

“It just … it ruined his life. Ruined it. Completely ruined his life in 12 seconds,” Ryan’s father, Tim Kingerski, said of the tragedy.

After the surgery, Kingerski experienced complications: debilitating headaches, double vision, floaters, and extreme sensitivity.

“He kept saying how bad the pain in his head was. He had a terrible headache and wasn’t able to focus, and the vision and the blurriness and everything else — and that just continued,” Kingerski said, according to CBS News.

At one point, Officer Kingerski posted on social media about his experience. Shortly after, the clinic reportedly dropped him as a patient.

After months of visiting specialists, and unable to continue the police work he loved, Kingerski took his life in January.

“He left us a note that said, ‘I can’t take this anymore. Lasik took everything from me.’ That’s the note that we got left,” Kingerski said.

KDKA-TV reached out to the LasikPlus doctor in Pittsburgh for an interview, but the office declined, issuing a statement instead.

“Legal requirements prevent us from speaking to the specifics of any patient, but suicide generally cannot be reduced to any single cause. To be clear, there is no clinical evidence linking suicide to LASIK eye surgery,” the statement read.

A mother and father in Penn Hills say they’re wading through an ocean of grief right now, but they’re speaking out to honor their son’s final days. They say he took his own life following debilitating complications from LASIK eye surgery. Ryan’s story airs at 5:45 @KDKA pic.twitter.com/lEOkTTgKDP

— MEGHAN SCHILLER (@MeghanKDKA) May 19, 2025

When asked about the risks involved with LASIK, the office made another statement.

“Each such patient is provided with a copy of the informed consent form at the pre-operative appointment for review — typically days in advance of the subsequently scheduled treatment. The consent form addresses the recognized risks, benefits and alternatives of the proposed procedure,” the statement read.

The Kingerskis want others to know about the risks involved with LASIK eye surgery and that it can go wrong, as it did for their son.

They encourage anyone who has experienced LASIK complications to fill out a MedWatch form, which the FDA reviews.

“People are going to watch this and say it’s mental health. This wasn’t mental health,” Tim Kingerski said. “It had nothing to do with mental health, so they are free to judge and say whatever they want to say. I know that my son before his surgery and after his surgery were two completely different people.”

Officer Kingerski and his twin brother had followed in their father’s footsteps and became policemen.

His mother, Stefanie, described him as, “witty, charming, smart, a lot of fun to be around.”

Lasik has a 96 percent satisfaction rate, according to the American Refractive Surgery Council.

The organization estimates that fewer than 1 percent of patients suffer sight-threatening complications from the procedure.

While complications may be rare, they do indeed happen.

Hayden Hutchins, a patient with Lasik complications of his own, d Kingerski’s story to social media, CBS News reported.

“All these people, Ryan included, like every single story that I hear, it’s more or less the same,” Hutchins said. “This patient was told that they were perfect for this surgery that was completely safe, you know, 99.99% success rate. So they were told they were perfect for it, and with that information, they made a decision to get it.

“Then when they experienced issues afterwards, most of the time, issues that they were not told about at all, they are met with dismissal, gaslighting, you know, that ‘They’re still healing. They’ll be fine. It’s nothing to worry about,’” Hutchins said.

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.