Success in court for lady who lost the sight in one eye

Julie Crossley, a medical negligence claim specialist at Ashtons Legal, has succeeded in getting the courts to agree that Mrs T, a lady now in her 80s, will be entitled to compensation for the total loss of vision in her right eye.

Mrs T opted to investigate the idea of relatively expensive private eye surgery when her age-related macular degeneration had got to a point where she could no longer read and had stopped driving for safety reasons. While she was having trouble with both eyes, she wanted the surgery on her left eye, which was far worse than the right eye.

During her consultations, she was not informed of the risks associated with the surgery, apart from the possibility of infection. Nor did anyone share with her the research findings revealing that this particular surgery might have a limited effect on the eyes of someone with age-related macular degeneration. Then, as a result of an administrative error, the surgery was carried out on her right eye, when she had specifically said that she wished to have the left eye done first. While the actual operation was carried out properly, her aftercare was not. She went on to develop glaucoma in her right eye which damaged her optic nerve. She should have been given a peripheral iridotomy at this point but this didn’t happen and she went on to suffer a total loss of vision in this eye.

Julie Crossley comments: “There was a catalogue of errors in Mrs T’s treatment. Fully explaining the risks of any procedure and getting obtaining basic consent is fundamental. It is very disappointing that we had to take Mrs T’s claim all the way to a court trial in order to begin to obtain justice for her but the outcome shows that it was entirely worthwhile. Now we can go on to get an agreement as to how much compensation she is due but, sadly, whatever we achieve it will not restore the sight in her right eye, merely give her more resource to live her life as best she can with minimal vision.”

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If you believe we can assist you when persuing a Medical Negligence claim, please get in contact with us on 0330 404 0777 or email enquiry@ashtonslegal.co.uk.