Laser eye surgery patient sues doctor in St. Louis County

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, Jun 30, 2006 by Allison Retka

(This article was originally published in St. Louis Daily Record, another Dolan Media publication.)

A laser eye surgery that left a patient with permanent double vision is the focus of a medical malpractice trial in St. Louis County this week.

Bill Smith, a computer technician, underwent LASIK eye surgery in January 2001, when part of his left cornea ripped off in the procedure, resulting in blurred vision and trouble with night vision.

Smith sued the ophthalmologist, Dr. Dean Ellis, and the jury trial began Tuesday morning with opening statements before Judge David Lee Vincent III.

We live in a visual world, plaintiff's attorney Craig Jensen began. And this case will have a lot of visual elements.

LASIK eye surgery, which uses a laser to reshape imperfections in the cornea, is a quick procedure during which the patient is kept awake.

It is regular practice in laser eye surgeries to administer a low- dose of a sedative, usually Valium, to jittery patients, Jensen said. But the doctors did not prescribe a sedative to Smith or ask whether he wanted one.

Both parties agreed the surgery on Smith's right eye was successful. But something went wrong when Ellis attempted a tiny cut with a microblade across the surface of the eye, a cut that provides access to the cornea.

The LASIK machine, which uses suction to hold the eye in place and provide a firm cutting surface, stopped providing suction, and as the surface of Smith's eye loosened, the microblade sliced his cornea.

Jensen said at the moment this happened, the ophthalmologist muttered, Oops, a claim denied by Ellis' attorney, Philip William.

William said the accidental cutting of the cornea, a condition known as free cap, is a known complication of LASIK surgeries. Free cap accidents are unrelated to any set standards of care, he said, and Ellis' conduct during the surgery was not the cause of the free cap.

William suggested part of Smith's eye membrane got caught in the LASIK machine's suction ring, blocking the suction pressure and causing the surface of the eye to fall loose.

Ellis attempted to put the cut flap back in place, and the following day sent Smith to another ophthalmologist for a consultation.

William said Smith's post-surgery eyesight was excellent in subsequent eye examinations.

The blurry vision that persists for Smith can be corrected with a contact lens or further surgery, William said.

But Jensen argued that the free cap caused significant scarring that irrevocably damaged Smith's eyesight.

He said the suction problem occurred when Smith involuntarily squeezed his eyeball in pain as the microblade touched his eye, a result of inadequate anesthesia in his left eye. The trial boils down to simple precautionary measures that Ellis neglected, he said.

A video of Smith's LASIK eye surgery will be shown to the jury, Jensen said, and is absolutely a smoking gun that proves Ellis was negligent.

At one point in William's opening statement, the attorney said that of more than 75,000 LASIK surgeries Ellis performed, only three had resulted in free cap complications.