New York City, NY – (NewYorkInjuryNews.com) — “The difference between low vision and no vision is the difference between day and night,” a New York medical malpractice lawyer argued recently to a jury.
David Dean, partner in the firm Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo, New York City medical malpractice attorneys, recently tried a case involving the loss of vision of Christopher Roberts, an actor already suffering from substantial vision problems.
Roberts claimed that his eye was injured as a result of the fault of a resident at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He alleged that the examining doctor improperly used the wrong solution when cleaning the patient’s contact lens. The solution was very caustic. When the lens was placed back into Roberts’ left eye, it burned him terribly, depriving him of any sight. The legal and practical problem in the case was the patient’s pre-existing disability. Before Roberts was treated, he was completely blind in his right eye and legally blind in his left eye. His left eye was inflamed, had a partially detached retina, and was substantially shrunken.
However, his New York medical malpractice lawyer elicited evidence that Roberts had functioned very well throughout his years with limited vision in the left eye. He had graduated from college and had received his Master’s Degree, was regularly employed as an actor doing sighted rolls, had made a number of commercials and independent films, and was regularly employed as a martial arts instructor.
A jury determined that the hospital employee’s negligence burned Roberts’ remaining sighted eye. The jury then awarded him $4 million in compensatory damages.