Eyes are a crucial part of our body and therefore, any kind of eye problem should immediately be addressed. Unfortunately, there has been a sudden rise in eye injuries due to the negligence of the doctors. Whether its cataract surgery or glaucoma surgery; the number of malpractice cases is getting higher in Arizona, United States. Due to this reason, there is a huge demand for a cataract surgery expert witness to get expert guidance on the matter. When you face injuries or damages to your eyes like loss of vision or inflammation due to negligence of the surgeons, you’ll need to get treatment from a second opinion. This means you’ll additional medical care for the same. For this purpose, you have the right to seek compensation in the United States. These individuals can claim compensation for paying their medical bills, pain and suffering and loss of income.
Medical Negligence in eye surgery cases:
Proving medical negligence is not at all an easy job. Medical negligence in eye surgery can take place if:
- The doctor performs surgery without informed consent
- Makes surgical errors like operating a wrong eye or using the wrong equipment
- Misdiagnosing or failure to diagnose
- Providing wrong medications
- Failure to consider the medical history of the patient or recommend suitable tests before performing the surgery
These are some of the instances which could result in complications like loss of vision, dry eyes, infection, bleeding, and others. For example, if you’ve undergone glaucoma surgery, you might face one of the following complications like- eye infections, loss of vision, and abnormally high or low eye pressure. If you believe that you are suffering from any of these because of the incompetence of the surgeon, you can file a lawsuit against the surgeon and you need to do this with prior consultation with a medical malpractice lawyer. A Glaucoma surgery expert witness will be called upon by the lawyers to seek expert guidance on this matter.
Now the question – ‘is it possible to prove the negligence of the surgeon’ is a common one. The answer is NO! Medical malpractice cases are highly complicated and this is one of the reasons why the attorneys need help from an expert witness. To prove negligence, the victim has to prove 5 essential things:
- That there was a breach of the Duty of care that the surgeon owed to the patient
- That the diagnosis and the treatment provided by the surgeon were substandard or below the standard of medical care.
- The incompetence or act of the surgeon has caused the plaintiff to suffer from injuries
- That due to the violation of the standard of care, the plaintiff has to sustain damages- monetary damages and loss of income
- The plaintiff has to defend contributory negligence in the case. Contributory negligence means where the plaintiff, to some extent, is responsible for the damages.
To prove these 5 essential things, the attorney will call upon an ophthalmologist expert witness to get expert guidance. These witnesses are crucial in court proceedings because they give a detailed explanation of how the malpractice has occurred and what an expert surgeon of the same credential would have done while performing the surgery. In this way, the expert witness will find out the loopholes in the surgery to prove that the plaintiff has suffered injuries because of the negligence of the surgeon. Click here to know more.
