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Lynne deCou stares across the ice-covered Alberta lake. Eight months ago, the field around her was a busy campground sheltered by sturdy trees perfect for climbing - the ideal place for a family to spend summers. But one July evening last year, the tranquility was destroyed.

A tornado ripped through the Green Acres campground in Pine Lake, Alta. On July 14 at about 7 p.m. The twister catapulted Ms. deCou and her 12-metre trailer into the water. Incredibly she, her family and their toy poodle survived the tornado that killed 12 people.

"Without the presence of God, I wouldn't be alive," the Calgary woman says today. "Being able to see without glasses was a miracle."

When the tornado hit, Ms. deCou's sons were in the neighbour's trailer. The blue sky had blackened and a gusting wind snapped the trailer's awning. Hailstones started to pelt the ground, small at first but soon "as big as my hand."

As Ms. deCou watched, the wind ripped the awning off the trailer. She tried to reach her sons but the pressure made the door impossible to open. The trailer rocked, and Ms. deCou braced herself in the bathtub with her poodle, Bailey, as the trailer flipped forward.

It flipped again with a resounding crash. " We smashed into the trailer my boys were in. I remember thinking, 'I've just squished them. My boys are dead."

There was a brief calm before the deafening wind returned. 
Suddenly, Ms. DeCou's trailer was cartwheeling across the lake.
"Then we were instantly and fully submerged." Ms. deCou and Bailey were trapped underwater in the bathroom.

"I went into this instant prayer mode." Years earlier, Ms. deCou hemorrhaged following the birth of one of her sons and had to be resuscitated. She recalled the "leaving feeling" she had then, and she prayed again. "You've helped me before; I need your help now."

Ms. deCou vividly remembers lunging toward a light. As she gasped to inhale water, she drew air. Incredibly, she had surfaced. The tornado still raged overhead.

Ms. deCou is a weak swimmer. If the shore was more than 75 metres away or if she swam in the wrong direction, she might have drowned. Seeing the shortest path to safety helped save her life. When she could finally touch land, her eyes seemed to deceive her. Ms. deCou could see her sons were fine. "I was full of joy. I was big happy."

Ms. deCou had laser eye surgery in 1997 and believes it is one of the reasons she is alive today. Laser eye surgery is often a story of freedom, safety and self-esteem.

Laurie Mestdagh has been a chiropractor in Winnipeg for 20 years. An avid sportsman, he was fed up after 35 years of glasses. "I wore glasses so long, I didn't realize how much of a pain they were until I didn't need them any more."

Dr. Mestdagh had laser eye surgery last fall. Like many patients, his first step toward surgery was research. He admits, "I had a big advantage because I could understand the medical literature."

Being a chiropractor made the decision to have laser surgery more difficult. Chiropractors are "probably the most skeptical" about surgery, he says.

Ultimately, though, Dr. Mestdagh was convinced. "I came to understand it's a fairly simple procedure. Complication factors are small and uncommon." Today his eyesight is perfect. "I'm like an owl now. I even see better at night."

The vast majority of patients get the convenience and peace of mind they seek from laser eye surgery. At Gimbel Eye Centres, nearly 100% of patients' expectations are achieved. Furthermore, 95% of patients' vision is restored to 20/20. The record of success instills confidence in the procedure.

Ms. deCou says she noticed things for the first time after the surgery, such as the barbed-wire fence behind her house. "It's always been there but I can see it now."

Dr. Mestdagh, a Gimbel patient like Ms. deCou, noticed he feels better about himself. He adds, "My patients tell me I look 100% without glasses."

Healthy self-esteem is ageless. A letter from one elderly patient recounts a magical moment fro the day he had surgery.

"For some years it marveled me that my 75-year-old face was so youthful in appearance! In preparation for our evening meal, as my eyes met my reflection in the mirror above the bathroom sink I learned the truth! For the first time ... the old-age blotches along with all the wrinkles that cover my face became visible to me! My heart leapt with joy and excitement because my eyesight was so vastly improved."

"The science is there for the benefit of people," says Dr. Howard Gimbel, a world-renowned pioneer of laser eye surgery and founder of Gimbel Eye Centres, "The outcome is an emotional and often spiritual experience.

"We have patients making statements like: 'I thought I would never see without glasses until I got to heaven.'" To their surprise, it happens in their lifetime. Laser eye surgery is "a modern miracle."

Back on the shore of Pine Lake, Ms. deCou is grateful she could see and swim well enough to get to shore, and that her perfect eyesight has been restored.

On that July day last year, as the tornado passed and Ms. deCou stood in shallow water, she saw her neighbour, Bonnie, standing in rubble and screaming hysterically. She thought her daughter, Danielle, was dead. Yet Danielle was alive and standing in front of Bonnie, who could not see her because her glasses had been lost in the tornado.

Although memories of the tornado will never fade entirely, on this overcast day on Pine Lake Ms. deCou retains her faith and vision of a bright future.

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