Injuries Alleged: Blindness
Amount of Settlement: $875,000.00
Case Summary:
Plaintiff, age 39, a type I diabetic since age 14 was seen over a several year period by defendant optometrist. Plaintiff was diagnosed as having mild non proliferative diabetic retinopathy by defendant who claimed that the condition did not progress. 6 weeks after his last visit with the defendant, plaintiff was diagnosed at another facility with severe proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Despite urgent treatment and multiple surgeries, plaintiff lost functional eyesight in both eyes.
Plaintiff was prepared to introduce testimony from a well renowned retinologist that given the severity of the plaintiff's proliferative diabetic retinopathy when it was finally diagnosed, it was his opinion with reasonable medical certainty that the plaintiff had this condition while under the care of the defendant and that it went unrecognized due to the negligence of the defendant. The retinologist was also prepared to testify that had the plaintiff's true condition been diagnosed in a timely fashion, as it should have been, that the plaintiff would not have lost his eyesight.
Plaintiff was also prepared to present testimony from an expert in optometry that the defendant departed from accepted standards of care in his care and treatment of the plaintiff.
