Ophthalmologist Caused Retinal Detachment

[SpringFlower]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TX


My son has been seeing floaters for over ten years. An ophthalmologist said that my son’s eye had lattice degeneration. Six months later, the same doctor rechecked his eyes and said that his eyes were fine.

A year later, a different ophthalmologist in another state examined my son’s eyes. He did not wait for the pupils to dilate and forcefully pushed down on my son’s eyeball several times with different scopes. His partner then came in and poked my son’s eyeball repeatedly with a thin metal instrument.

These doctors said that my son had a retinal detachment and needed surgery.

Retinal detachment usually happens to elderly people, or people who have a family history of retinal detachment, eye disease or as a result of trauma or injury to the eye. My son is young and has no family history of retinal detachment or eye disease. He did not have any accident, trauma or injury before seeing these doctors.

We had never seen anyone examining the eyes forcefully the way these doctors did. Even though we told the doctor that a technician applied the dilating drops into my son's eyes less than five minutes ago and my son's pupils had not dilated, but he said it was OK and continued anyway.

We went to see another ophthalmologist and he said that my son had a localized detachment. He used laser to weld it back. He couldn’t tell if my son’s eye would be OK or it would need further surgery in the future.

Should we file a complaint with the State Medical Board?
If we file a lawsuit or file a complaint, will other doctors be reluctant to treat my son in the future?

[ecmst12]

Did the second doctor actually SAY that the rough treatment could have caused the detachment? That sounds unlikely to me. Just because it's uncommon for young people to have this problem doesn't mean it never happens, and he's had known degeneration for some time. The degeneration is more likely the cause of the detachment.

Now if another doctor will not only say to you, but be willing to testify in court, that the first opt's treatment caused the detachment, you might have a case, but the damages would be limited to the cost of the laser treatment, as it doesn't sound like he has any permanent damage.