C
charliew
Guest
I saw a small black spot in my eye that turned out to be a detached retina. I did not know it at the time but suspected something wrong and wanted an appointment with the eye doctor. On a Wednesday afternoon, the doctor's office was slow in giving me an appointment telling me that if there wasn't any pain, then it wasn't an emergency. I called Saturday informing them that the spot had grown. The rceptionist gave me an appoinment on Monday. When I was examined, 5 days later, the spot had grown even more. The doctor diagnosed a detached retina and sent me immediately to a retina specialist for surgery.
I eventually had 4 surgeries over the next year to finally reattach the retina but with significant loss of vision in that eye. I suspect if the diagnosis had been sooner, there would have been less damage to the retina, but am not sure of this.
The work of the doctors was excellent. They did nothing wrong. Also, I did not demand a faster appointment and followed the time frame of the appointment maker because I had had no experience with detached retinas and did not know I had a serious problem.
The question: Is there a case for malpracice because of the delay by the original eye doctor's appointment maker (not a physician)? Physicians I suppose would argue that they cannot see everyone immediately, but should unskilled office workers decide what is an emergency? I now know that a black spot in the eye is a detaching retina and needs immediate surgery. Should the receptionist have known this and is the physician responsible?
I eventually had 4 surgeries over the next year to finally reattach the retina but with significant loss of vision in that eye. I suspect if the diagnosis had been sooner, there would have been less damage to the retina, but am not sure of this.
The work of the doctors was excellent. They did nothing wrong. Also, I did not demand a faster appointment and followed the time frame of the appointment maker because I had had no experience with detached retinas and did not know I had a serious problem.
The question: Is there a case for malpracice because of the delay by the original eye doctor's appointment maker (not a physician)? Physicians I suppose would argue that they cannot see everyone immediately, but should unskilled office workers decide what is an emergency? I now know that a black spot in the eye is a detaching retina and needs immediate surgery. Should the receptionist have known this and is the physician responsible?