Amos Gern and John Ratkowitz, obtained a jury awarded of
$17 million on behalf of a 58 year old patent attorney left blind in one eye
following negligent treatment by a retinal surgeon in September and October of
1995.
The unanimous verdict, reached on February 25, 2000,
before the Honorable F. Michael Caruso, also awarded $3.5 million to his wife
on her per quod claim, bringing the entire verdict to $20.5 million dollars.
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendant retinal surgeon
negligently delayed laser photocoagulation surgery on the plaintiff's left eye
when it developed a torn retina on September 28, 1995.
The jury found the defendant should have performed
prophylactic laser surgery on the left eye, which would have prevented a later
retinal detachment. The jury also determined that the doctor improperly failed
to inform the plaintiff of the urgency and danger posed by delaying the laser
surgery for the torn retina. Thus, instead of an immediate procedure,
plaintiffs alleged that the defendant negligently arranged for the patient to
return for treatment on a subsequent date that ultimately proved to be too
late.
Further, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant failed
to see the plaintiff and treat more significant symptoms, involving smokey vision
and halos around lights after the plaintiff called and reached the doctor's
office between the two visits.
By the time the plaintiff arrived for his laser
procedure, it was discovered that the original torn retina had become detached
at the very location originally discovered to be damaged, and two additional
tears had occurred in the retina. As a result, a simple office procedure
involving the laser photocoagulation, or cryotherapy, could no longer be
performed, and the plaintiff needed a scleral buckle operation, with cryopexy,
to reattach the retina to the back of the eye, in an extensive operative
procedure.
The plaintiffs also alleged
that the defendant was negligent in the performance of the scleral buckle
operation, in that he applied excessive cryopexy to the left retina, which
caused an inflammatory process known as proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR).
During the next two years following the surgery, the plaintiff developed severe
double vision, a permanent dilated pupil, loss of blood supply to the iris, a
macular pucker with distorted vision, and deteriorating vision with a
continuing inflammatory process, causing the retina to continue to separate and
detach.
Ultimately, the plaintiff went through a vitrectomy
(involving replacing the vitreous of the eye with a gas bubble) and other
extensive retina surgery, which failed and resulted in a totally detached
retina. As a result, the plaintiff completely lost his sight in January of
1998, and developed a shrunken eye which will require cosmetic correction by
use of a glass eye or a hand-designed shell cover, which keeps the eye from
continuing to shrink and wither. Plaintiff's spouse received a substantial per
quod award $3.5 million.
