£44,500 obtained for elderly lady who lost sight in her right eye

Posted 19/05/2014

Ben Ward, a medical injury solicitor at Ashtons Legal, has secured a settlement of just over £44,500 for Mrs A, a lady in her late eighties, who underwent negligently performed cataract removal surgery at the James Paget Hospital in Suffolk.

Mrs A underwent surgery to remove a cataract in her right eye and insert a new lens. Multiple errors occurred during the operation, including a posterior capsular tear and vitreous loss, which meant a new lens could not be inserted. A second attempt to insert the lens took place a few days later. During the operation Mrs A suffered a haemorrhage and required urgent closure of the eye; unfortunately she lost all sight in that eye as a result.

As part of Ben Ward’s investigation, the surgeon’s theatre log was requested from the hospital. This revealed that the leading surgeon, who was very junior, had only performed nine previous cataract removals as the lead surgeon. In addition to this the surgeon responsible for supervising the junior doctor was not a consultant and had, at no other time before or after Mrs A’s operation, ever operated with or supervised that particular junior doctor. It was, therefore, alleged that had the operation been performed by an appropriately qualified doctor and/or had an appropriately qualified surgeon supervised the operation the errors that occurred during the first operation would have been avoided. The Defendant Trust admitted liability.

Ben comments: “When a young individual loses their sight, or alternatively when someone is born with only partial sight, they are usually able to adapt over the course of time. This cannot be said with most elderly patients. In this particular case Mrs A has never adapted to her loss of vision in  her right eye. She suffered with awful hallucinations and found depth perception incredibly difficult. Unfortunately she has since fallen backwards landing on a step and suffering multiple brain contusions as a result. We believe that this would not have happened if her vision had been normal.

I accept that doctors have to learn and refine their skills somehow. However, it needs to be in a safe environment. On this occasion it is unfortunate that the supervision provided to this young surgeon was simply inadequate. Had appropriate supervision been provided it is likely that Mrs A’s cataract removal and lens insertion would have been performed successfully.”