Proving Medical Malpractice in LASIK Eye Surgery
Each year, many people choose to have LASIK surgery performed on them in order to improve their eyesight. While LASIK surrey has been around for many decades now, and the majority of health care professionals consider the surgery to be a rather safe procedure, things can and do go wrong. If a patient is harmed due to the negligence or error of an ophthalmologist, optometrist, or technician, he or she may be able to pursue a medical malpractice claim against one or multiple parties who are at fault. The team of New Jersey LASIK malpractice lawyers at Brady Reilly & Cardoso, LLC can help you better understand what you have to do to prove malpractice for a negative outcome from LASIK surgery.
Potential Injuries & Complications Following LASIK Surgery
Some of the likely injuries and complications that a patient could experience after undergoing LASIK surgery include the following:
- Double vision
- Reduced vision or blindness
- Blurry vision
- Chronic pain
- Severe dry eyes
- Astigmatism
- Halos, glare, and starbursts
- Sensitivity to light
- Overcorrections or under-corrections
- Macular holes
- Not being able to see depth or contrast
Patients may also experience other problems or injuries following a LASIK procedure. Unfortunately, some patients experience serious injuries and issues that extremely change their lives — sometimes permanently. Malpractice and negligence can cause significant financial, emotional, and mental damages. Establishing that a physician or another involved parted acted negligently is the first step in recovering compensation for your damages stemming from an instance of medical malpractice.
Proving Malpractice for a LASIK Surgery Procedure
Establishing a Reasonable Standard of Care
The initial step in proving medical malpractice is establishing what the reasonable standard of professional care for your procedure in the industry would be. In the majority of cases, other health care professionals will provide testimony in order to explain what the standard of care should have been in a situation similar to that of your individual case.
Proving a Breach of Care
Secondly, experts are called upon to review the circumstances of the case to determine if the care you received was short of the care of a reasonably competent and skilled ophthalmologist would have provided under similar or like conditions. The error or negligence has to be identified and compared to the standard of care in the medical field.
Medical malpractice could involve one or more errors or negligent acts. For example, a physician could be in a hurry to perform LASIK surgery before you change your mind in order to earn more income for his or her practice. That means the physician fails to screen for certain conditions that make you a poor candidate for surgery. The physician could continue with the surgery, even if he or she was aware of the condition. In both of these cases, the actions of the physician may rise to the level of medical malpractice.
Another form of medical malpractice involves failing to monitor the patient post-procedure properly for complications and infections. Failing to provide competent follow-up care could result in serious injuries or even blindness. Mistakes or errors made during the surgery, including failure to take the proper measures or entering incorrect measurements into the equipment, could cause the patient to suffer from traumatic injuries.
Failure to obtain informed consent prior to surgery, using machinery that is not properly calibrated or maintained, lacking the experience to operate medical equipment, and using improper surgical techniques are other possible forms of medical malpractice.
Proving the Breach of Care Resulted in Your Injury & Damages
After you establish the first and second elements that are explained above, you then have to also show that the breach of care directly contributed to your injuries and caused you to suffer damages. Medical records and expert witnesses will be called upon to connect the specific actions or inactions of the physician to your injuries.
Contact a LASIK Malpractice Attorney in New Jersey for More Information
Negligence cases involving medical malpractice are often extremely complicated. Victims need the help of a skilled New Jersey LASIK malpractice lawyer on their side to ensure that they receive justice for injuries resulting from medical malpractice. You should contact a qualified medical malpractice attorney in New Jersey at Brady Reilly & Cardoso, LLC today to discuss how we can help you as you are dealing with changes in your vision and the consequences of those changes.
Medical Malpractice Injuries in New Jersey
According to national statistics, medical malpractice is the cause of nearly 120,000 fatalities each year. Other studies have found that fewer than 3% of malpractice victims ever pursue compensation for their injuries or other damages. That means many deserving victims never end up filing a medical malpractice claim. The legal team at Brady Reilly & Cardoso, LLC believes that all victims of medical malpractice deserve to recover the compensation needed to cover their losses and damages resulting from an instance of medical malpractice.