Operation that left former midwife blind in one eye was ‘like being tortured’

A former midwife who was left essentially blind in one eye after cataract surgery has told how she felt like she was being ‘tortured’ during the operation. While undergoing a routine procedure at SpaMedica, a private health care provider that carries out cataract surgery for the NHS, she suffered a posterior capsular rupture of her right eye, leaving large fragments in the back of her eye and large floaters in her field of vision.

Despite several remedial operations, she has been left with no vision in the middle of her eye and only blurred vision at the edges.

Geraldine Guite, a mother of three from Surrey, who, until recently, was a full-time carer for her autistic son, is now taking legal action against SpaMedica through the medical negligence team at Penningtons Manches Cooper.

Geraldine had previously had surgery on her left eye at SpaMedica in Wokingham in 2022 with no complications. When she returned in February 2023 to have her right eye operated on, she was relaxed until she got into the operating theatre.

She said: “When I was on the operating table, I remember feeling like I was being tortured and that I hoped it would be over as quickly as possible. The pain was excruciating and I was awake to feel it all. I was conscious that if I moved it would only make matters worse. I knew something was going wrong, I felt extremely unsafe and thought I had made a terrible mistake being there.

“I was given no time to compose myself. The surgeon started shouting at me that I was moving my eyes. Then, he just started operating without any explanation and immediately I felt a great deal of pain. I raised my hand to alert him to my discomfort but he ignored me. My medical notes say I was having eye movements so why did he just carry on?

“As a former midwife, I have nothing but respect for the NHS, but there has been a catalogue of errors that has led me to lose the sight from my right eye.

“This all could have been avoided. When I was in surgery, why did nobody check on me to see if I was all right when this surgeon was behaving so unprofessionally? Why did the surgeon not manage my eye movements instead of carrying on and causing the capsular rupture?”

Geraldine was informed that she needed remedial surgery by text message. She said: “When I turned up for the second operation I looked like I had been in a boxing match. After that surgery, my vision deteriorated even more, my mental health suffered and I had trouble sleeping.”

Geraldine attended the clinic two days later when her vision was deteriorating but received no medical attention.

“I felt dismissed and that nobody was listening to me,” she said. “I knew my vision wasn’t recovering as it had from the first cataract surgery to my left eye. Despite my concerns, they only gave me eyedrops, which were no use for the situation I was in.”

Geraldine sought a further opinion from specialists at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London who revealed she had suffered macular toxicity – a condition often brought on by certain drugs used during the remedial surgery that had been performed. SpaMedica have no records of the amount of the particular drug they gave her during her second operation and were dismissive in this regard. Geraldine felt that if the original capsular rupture had not happened, none of the complications would have occurred.

She said: “It’s deeply upsetting. I spend every waking moment trying to regulate myself and I constantly feel discombobulated because of my visual impairment.”

The loss of Geraldine’s sight in one eye was compounded when she found out that her medical records had been falsified. She said: “The records showed that I suffered no pain, was reassured throughout the operation, that I thought the operation was a success and that I would recommend the surgeon to family and friends, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The whole complaints procedure has been traumatic and caused me enormous distress, and I have been left with a lifelong disability.”

SpaMedica have admitted liability and that the surgeon was guilty of several breaches of duty.

A letter from SpaMedica’s lawyers said: “Our client accepts liability and is very sorry for the shortcomings in the care provided to Ms Guite. On behalf of our client, we would like to sincerely apologise for the poor care.”

Arran Macleod, a specialist medical negligence solicitor from Penningtons Manches Cooper, who represents Geraldine, said: “My client’s life has been devastated because of a catalogue of errors that could easily have been avoided. If her surgeon had been more professional, listened to my client’s concerns and taken basic steps to manage her pain and eye movements, the injury would have been entirely avoided.

“The loss of my client’s vision has understandably deeply affected her mental health and this has been made worse by SpaMedica’s conduct towards her during the complaints procedure. The admissions that have now been obtained from the defendant completely vindicate my client’s concerns and complaints. We will now be investigating what aids, equipment, adaptations and commercial support will be required by my client to mitigate her injuries before presenting SpaMedica with our assessment of the value of her claim for compensation.”