I read it so I know it exists but I can't remember what it is called

[underthevalley]

It is about this person (can't even remember if they were male or female) who is blind and has surgery to make them see. And when they take the bandages off they can see but all the doctors and nurses have animal heads.

I know it exists because I read it.

Anyone heard of it and knows what it is called?

Not sure about that but some of the doctors and nurses in King's Dark Tower series are taheen and have animal heads but I don't think that's what you're thinking of.

Yes!
It's a short story by Shirley Jackson. If I remember correctly, it was about a woman who saw the doctors and nurses as animals that most fitted their characters.
I've been googling like mad but I can't find the title; nevertheless, I do remember reading it, ooh, must be twenty years ago now while I was still at school, and it stuck in my head as well.

I've been racking my brains for this too. Was fairly sure it was a short story. As I recall it was a hallucination from the anaesthetic, and once it wore off, the people appeared as their normal selves again - but as Peahen says, their characters had been laid bare.

I suspect I read it in an anthology, perhaps one of the old Pan collections of horror stories.

Eeek, sounds horrid but I'd love to read it. I've only read a couple of Shirley Jackson's things - The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House.

It's 'The Blue Lenses' by Daphne du Maurier. It is a short story so it might be in an edition with a different title. You should be able to get it for peanuts though.

Of course! Thanks, Indrid. Been looking through some of the usual suspects - Roald Dahl, John Wyndham, Ruth Rendell, Patricia Highsmith etc - to no avail, and I do have this - it was the title story of the collection (Penguin, 75p :)) Also got 2 other collections by DdM - The Birds & os and Don't Look Now & os. Those other title stories will need no introduction. I wonder if there's a complete collection of her stories, I see there was a hitherto unpublished batch out last year. Must investigate!

It's nice when you find that you still have a copy! I've got a nice hardback edition with illustrations and (I think) signed by D d M herself. IIRC the stories were pretty spooky - they were certainly turned into some fairly amazing films.