Eyesight is one of our most valuable senses, and we pay top dollar for optometrists to keep it in good condition. Medical malpractice suits extend to cover optometry malpractice. If you are eligible and can successfully substantiate your claim, you can recover a broad range of damages, from medical bills and loss of income, to rehabilitation and emotional damages.
Common Types of Optometrist Malpractice Cases
Our firm handles all types of medical malpractice cases, including those from harmed optometrist patients. It’s quite heart-wrenching when we receive calls from devastated patients who’ve lost their sight because of their doctors’ preventable errors.
According to Optometric Management, “The vast majority of malpractice cases fall within three categories of disorders: retinal detachment, glaucoma, and tumors. Failure to diagnose choroidal neovascularization and proliferative diabetic retinopathy are important but are less frequent causes of malpractice litigation.”
Other triggers for a malpractice lawsuit that we’ve come across in our practice include the following.
- Misdiagnosis of intraocular disease
- Corneal disease
- Not obtaining informed consent
- Complications in contact lens wearers leading to diagnostic errors
- Failing to use diagnostic drugs for dilation of the pupil
- Adverse responses to ophthalmic drug
- Not receiving proper notification about the risks of procedures or of other treatment options
- Failure to offer binocular vision therapy to amblyopic children
Do you have a valid medical malpractice case?
Proving medical malpractice takes three elements.
- Unacceptable care: Did the optometrist act in a way that most other optometrists in similar situations would have acted? Did he or she follow normal protocols and guidelines provided by the American Optometric Association? If your doctor fell short of the industry standard of care, it might be considered malpractice.
- Causation: The optometrist’s behavior must be directly linked to your harm. In other words, if not for the doctor’s negligence, you would not have been harmed. If you were injured or sustained injuries but it was a natural symptom of your disease not necessarily the doctor’s actions, then you can’t hold the doctor accountable.
- Damages: You have to have sustained actual damages as a result of the optometrist’s mistake. If s/he made an error, but no harm came of it, you have no cause to file a suit.
Speaking to a Medical Malpractice Attorney about Your Case
Optometrists have a high standard of care for patients. If they breach this standard and are careless or negligent with their patients, it can have serious, long-term ramifications.
- Blindness
- Debilitating headaches
- Fatality
If you reside in Georgia and think you may have a medical malpractice case on your hands, malpractice attorney Jason R. Schultz can help. Call the office at 404-474-0804 and schedule a free, no-obligation consultation today.
