Article

WP LESSNER_MAY_ODM
4/17/08
6:46 PM
Page 236
WILD PALMS
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIA LANKINA
The people who make Fort Lauderdale
CORY LESSNER Offering Medical Care With an Eye on the Future
W
hen the Miami Dolphins score a touchdown or the Miami Heat hit a
three-pointer, one proud fan might beam a little brighter than the
rest. Surgeon Cory M. Lessner, M.D., is the man entrusted with caring
for the eyes of South Florida’s top professional athletes. “It’s an honor,” Lessner
says of being the official LASIK surgeon to South Florida’s professional sports
teams. “When they choose to say that it has helped their game, it’s a feeling I
can’t really put into words.”
The Plantation resident is the medical director and chief surgeon of Millennium Laser Eye Centers in Sunrise. The company’s website (mleye.com)
teems with glowing testimonials from celebrities such as Jimmy Johnson, Jeff
Conine and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But Lessner says he is equally humbled by the teachers, police officers and military personnel who praise his work.
The fact that several family members, including his wife of 15 years, Maria,
have trusted him with their surgeries is further proof of his expertise. “And I’m
still welcome at Thanksgiving,” he says, laughing.
Over the course of his career, Lessner has preformed more than 20,000
corneal-refractive surgeries and developed a number of novel medical techniques, which represent the manifestation of a childhood dream: “I decided I
was going to be a doctor when I was three years old and an ophthalmologist
when I was nine,” he says.
—Joselle Galis-Hernandez
158 Ocean Drive May 2008
JUST THE FACTS
Guilty pleasures: “Rémy Martin Louis XIII cognac and an occasional cigar, a round of golf, or
some time out on the water.”
Inspiration and/or motivating force: “Knowing how many people’s lives I change for the
better and the desire to help as many more people as possible to benefit from the freedom
that these extraordinary procedures provide.”
Advice to those scared of LASIK: “Take the time to visit our center, speak to patients
whom we’ve helped and discover how very safe, easy and painless these life-changing
procedures really are. Truth is, it’s actually safer than wearing contact lenses every day.”
Favorite getaway: “South of France.”
Favorite Miami restaurants: “Nobu, Blue Door and Joe’s Stone Crab.”
Most “wow” patient to date: “I’ll never forget the woman who told me that in the days
following her surgery she saved her little boy’s life when she saw him, out of the corner of her
eye, floating face down in the pool. She typically did not wear contacts and said she would
never have spotted him with her peripheral vision if she were wearing glasses.”
If you weren’t an ophthalmologist, you would be: “A stay-at-home dad to my
daughters, Sabrina, 12, and Amanda, nine.”