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"Are there any stories out there relating how bad it can be if it goes wrong?"

Visit their Image Center for simulations of what the world will look like if you're one of the unlucky ones...

First of all you have to consider there are basically 2 kinds of corrective eye surgery:

LASIK - that opens a flap of your cornea, zaps the cornea with the laser, and puts the flap back. Vision comes back instantly.

PRK - no flap needed, thus avoiding all problems related to it. The epithelium is removed, the cornea zapped, and a special protective contact lense is used for a couple days till epitheliums grows back again. Vision will not be 100% for about 2-3 weeks so it's done one eye each time.

PRK was the surgery of choice, but people got too much haze after surgery, and nobody knew why. LASIK was invented, and became a marketing dream. Fast recovery, no pain. It altered the structure of the cornea and some people when blind, cut the cornea nerves, eyes got dry, but so what ? Eye surgeons could earn thousands in a cirurgy that takes less than a minute, and could market it as being as simple as a hair cut. Easy to sell. Profit outweighs the risks.
Then recently they found out how to avoid haze in PRK (it seems that avoiding UV and taking vitamin C does the trick). So PRK is much safer than LASIK, but takes longer to recover.

Of course technology does import. I wouldn't take anything without wavefront with top-notch equipment. IANAD, but from what I saw the best equipments are the Visx S4 and the Ladarvision.

I suggest you read
http://www.asklasikdocs.com/cgi-local/forum/board. cgi
http://www.surgicaleyes.org/
http://www.allaboutvision.com/visionsurgery/prk.ht m

BTW, I am scheduled to have PRK in 2 weeks, in a Visx 4 + wavefront.

I had a co-worker who had laser eye surgery. Afterward, he suffered with vision problems and dryness. Before you go under the laser, check out this article and this site!

It's glasses for me....

Make sure you visit this site before ever laying down in that chair. A recent study (Feb. 2003, on the site) indicates between 10 and 20% of refractive surgery patients have complications, a number that is far above what the LASIK industry is touting as its failure rate.

Of particular interest are the stories concerning doctors who have overridden software safeguards and have continued the procedure, resulting in broken blades in the eyes and some other not-so-pleasant outcomes. Not strictly in the "bugs killling people" dept., but it does make you think whether you trust your eyes to a software developer.

Some web resources of potential interest:

I.S.E.E.
seeing.org
Google search

Some books of potential interest:

Relearning to See
The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses
Perfect Sight Without Glasses

With regard to refractive surgery, the cornea generally heals (scars) very slowly, over the course of years or decades, so the long term effects of refractive surgery may not yet be well understood. In my opinion, for persons with eyesight that can easily be corrected to near 20/20, refractive surgery is risky and reckless (especially so if your livelihood depends on your eyesight). See surgicaleyes.org for stories from the dark side of refractive surgery.

Fortunately, natural techniques are available that may be able to help people improve blurred eyesight caused by problems such as myopia or astigmatism. For further information on the topic of natural eyesight improvement, a good starting point is the ISEE website.

I recently backed down from having LASIK performed to correct my vision. I was not happy with the vagueness of the expected result, and the incredibly long list of possible side effects they wanted me to sign off on.

For $2500 I want a guarantee. Since that isn't possible I want a guarantee that they will 'make things right' if there is a problem. Since I couldn't get that I backed off.

After seeing this site I'm glad I backed off.

http://www.surgicaleyes.org/

On the other hand, the one person I know personally who had laser eye surgery (I think it was LASIK) loved it. He had both eyes done on Friday and was back to work on Monday.