Case studies

We recently settled a claim for negligence during cataract surgery which caused our client to sustain permanent and irrecoverable loss of sight from her right eye.

We acted for a client who suffered unilateral deterioration of her vision in the early 1990s. She reported this to her optometrist, whom she attended regularly between 1997 and 2004 while her vision continued to deteriorate.

We recently settled a case where a client with diabetes had been attending his GP with early evidence of diabetic retinopathy that went undiagnosed.

Our clinical negligence specialists settled a claim against the Secretary of State for Health relating to treatment provided by the former Surrey Primary Care Trust (PCT) for an eye injury.

We have dealt with a case where abdominal surgery led to complications that ultimately cost our client her eyesight. The surgery regrettably resulted in perforation of her jejunum and she spent a month in an intensive care unit.

We are advising on a case relating to the standard of ophthalmic treatment our client received during an iridotomy, performed to correct ‘narrow angles’, which left her vulnerable to developing glaucoma and possible eyesight loss.

We investigated and resolved a claim arising from poorly performed evisceration surgery (eyeball removal) under local anaesthetic. This was undertaken without considering the patient’s complicated ophthalmic medical history of repeated retinal detachments.

We were instructed to investigate the delayed diagnosis and treatment of wet macular degeneration in an extremely sprightly 81 year old lady who was very active in the community and was still working part time. Due to an administrative error, her referral for investigations for suspected wet macular degeneration was delayed and she was not seen within the mandatory two week period.

This case involved a significant breach of duty when a private ophthalmic surgeon performed surgery that our client had explicitly told him she did not want.

We settled a claim for a client who had longstanding sinus difficulties which were attributed to polyps. As conservative management did not improve his symptoms, he underwent surgery to remove the polyps at a private hospital.

We have recently settled a claim for a GP client who suffered loss of vision and visual disturbance because of negligent anaesthetic management during spinal surgery.

Our clinical negligence specialists have represented a patient who lost the sight in his right eye after a hospital failed to organize proper follow-up care for his retinal detachment surgery. The case was reported, before its successful conclusion, by the Daily Telegraph in April 2019, as part of a feature about systemic problems within the NHS.