Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Rules To Effectively Litigating Hard To Win LASIK Injury Cases!


"The Rules To Effectively Litigating
Hard To Win LASIK Injury Cases."

By Dean Andrew Kantis
Founder of
www.LifeAfterLasik.com 
 

First, what is the statute of limitations, and why is this important for the patient to understand prior to having irreversible LASIK eye surgery that permanently thins out the patient's cornea, and can potentially create severe dry eye syndrome and other visual complications such as halos, glare, double vision, starburst, foreign body sensation, etc. 

"THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS AND THE
TIME BOMB OF POST LASIK ECTASIA:" 

The statute of limitations refers to the period within which you must start a lawsuit. If you fail to act in timely fashion, a court will dismiss your lawsuit, no matter how strong your claim may have been. Consequently, victims can be left without any legal remedy. The statutes of limitations for medical malpractice vary from state to state in duration (and exceptions).

The main point that needs to be understood is that patients who had LASIK need to consider the fact that post-LASIK ectasia may not surface for years after surgery. In some instances, their right to sue may be over before they even knew they had a case. 
To learn more about LASIK, the time bomb of ectasia, and the statute of limitations consider: http://www.krounerlaw.com/the-statute-of-limitations-and-time-bomb-of-post-lasik-ectasia .
"HOW CAN  PATIENTS PROTECT THEIR RIGHTS IF THE SURGERY DOES NOT GO AS PLANNED AND WHAT LEGAL RECOURSE DO THEY HAVE?"  

Given the comprehensive nature of LASIK informed consent forms, the patient wonders how he can sue when this fine print regrettably applies to him. First, the consent form does not protect the doctor from his own negligence. For example, if the patient initially was not a good candidate for surgery, if the doctor was negligent in performing the surgery, or if the laser malfunctioned, the informed consent form will not protect the doctor.

So, when might the informed consent form matter? An article in Cornea reports that 20% of LASIK patients suffer varying degrees of dry eye after LASIK surgery.[1] More candid surgeons admit the true number is closer to 50%. As a general rule, the complication or side effect of dry eyes is not due to any error or mistake by the doctor. It is generally considered to be a known and accepted risk of the surgery. The doctor tells you this so that you are not surprised if it happens to you. Dry eyes generally are not a sign of malpractice.

However, failing to inform a patient about this common side effect would constitute a breach of the duty of informed consent. Informed consent is a process. It is not a piece of paper. The pre-printed informed consent form is prepared for the vast majority of refractive laser surgery patients. But if the patient is at higher risk because he has a pre-existing corneal condition or disease, such as keratoconus, has suspicion for ectasia, or has a thin cornea, the doctor has a duty to inform his patient that he is not a good candidate for a refractive surgery. To learn more about informed consent and eye surgery read:
 http://www.krounerlaw.com/informed-consent .

IF YOU'D LIKE TO RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION ON LITIGATING A LASIK OR REFRACTIVE SURGERY CASE, PLEASE SEE THE FOLLOWING: 

Todd J. Krouner founded The Law Office of Todd J. Krouner in October 1994. For the past decade, he has worked on a diverse range of plaintiffs’ LASIK litigation matters. In July 2005, he obtained a verdict of $7.25 million, which is the largest verdict ever for a case involving LASIK medical malpractice, Schiffer v. Speaker, et al. In 2009, Mr. Krouner obtained the second largest LASIK verdict of $5.4 million, including a record $3 million for his client’s pain and suffering alone, in Devadas v. Niksarli.

To date, nationwide, Mr. Krouner has successfully tried or settled nearly two dozen LASIK, or related eye, medical malpractice cases. At www.krounerlaw.com , he has a LASIK blog that offers some great tips and advice for potential patients or persons who have been injured as a result of eye surgery:
http://www.krounerlaw.com/lasik-blog .

Mr. Krouner was also the only attorney who spoke on behalf of injured LASIK patients at the April 25, 2008 emergency LASIK Ophthalmic FDA panel discussion held in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  He also alleged that the LASIK industry is known for "underreporting dissatisfied/permanent injury outcomes."
Yet the physician and LASIK mills continue to say "the patient was a success and made better," even though the patient completely disagreed. Lastly, Mr. Krouner encouraged the FDA to police and inspect LASIK factories to make sure they were following FDA laws and following mandatory MDR physician reporting of all "adverse outcomes” so that the FDA is aware of all LASIK injured patient cases.  If you had a poor refractive surgical outcome and would like to know more about litigating against your eye doctor or the laser manufacturer, then I recommend that you reach out to Todd Krouner and ask him to evaluate your case to see if there is the potential to recover for your pain and suffering, loss of income and medical expenses due to your loss of vision.
Law Office of Todd J. Krouner

93 North Greeley Avenue
Chappaqua, New York 10514
Telephone: (914) 238-5800

Website: www.krounerlaw.com  


[1] Bailey M.D., Zadnik K., Outcomes of LASIK for myopia with FDA-approved lasers, Cornea, 2007, Apr.; 26(3):246-54.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Dr. Ed Boshnick Helps Many Post LASIK Casualties Find Hope!


"A Few Words About LASIK"
by Dr. Ed Boshnick
Website:  http://www.LasikHope.com
Website:  http://www.ScleralLens.com 
Website:  http://www.EyeFreedom.com

"Over the years I've had the misfortune of examining thousands of patients who have lost quality vision and suffered severe depression as a result of LASIK surgery. Two of these patients were so depressed by their post-surgical vision loss that they attempted suicide. In fact, there are several documented cases of post-LASIK  suicides."  The known risks and complications of LASIK surgery includes: Severely distorted corneas, causing loss of best corrected visual acuity, vision distortions known as higher order aberrations, under correction and over correction of the patient's vision error, nighttime vision disorders including halos, starbursts, glare, ghosting and double vision.

Other LASIK risk factors also include:
Infection, corneal ectasia (a gradual protrusion of the corneal surface), severe dry eye and loss of contrast sensitivity( the ability of distinguish between different shades of white and grey). My feeling is that LASIK surgery and other refractive surgical procedures exist solely to enrich doctors and the corporations that manufacture the laser equipment and not to benefit mankind. 


If you can see well with your eyeglasses or contact lenses, don't even think about getting involved with LASIK. If you are having vision or comfort issues with your contact lenses, make an appointment with a "contact lens specialist" and have him/her refit you with a lens design that will address these issues. The result, is there is a process that we go through (which is not an easy task by no means) in order to properly fit the new "Complex and Complicated Cornea" for customized Scleral Lenses in order to help recreate a "New Cornea" to see through for these patients. Our practice now is solely fixated on helping the "Post Refractive Community." 





Whatever you, the patient, decides to do, by all means stay within the non-surgical arena so that you do NOT change the natural shape of your eyes which then makes you even more difficult to fit for contact lenses and in the long-run will cost you possibly tens of thousands more, not to mention the permanent damages left to your only eyes. I can't stress this enough. Please listen!

"In fact, there are so many post refractive and permanently injured eyes coming in to our practice that we started to tape our patients (with their consent of course) to illustrate and show factual proof of how post RK, LASIK, LASEK, EPI-LASIK and PRK refractive patients are becoming permanently injured at an alarminig rate, and can no longer get visual correction due to their new cornea shapes which in technical terms we call "Complicated and Complex Corneas."

"Just about all of these patients had some sort of story about how their elective refractive surgery took everything from them, how they lost hope, in some cases lost the will to live, lost their marriages, lost their ability to drive a car in the daytime or nightime, lost their careers, lost their ability to provide for their family, and many are now on disability."

"Because a large part of my ophthalmic practice involves restoring vision to those who have experienced varying degrees of vision loss from LASIK, my advice is not to get involved with this procedure. If you have experienced compromised vision as a result of LASIK, you are more than welcome to contact me to discuss what can be done to help you regain quality vision. "

Simply click this link below to watch
"LASIK/Post Refractive Patient Stories:"
 http://eyefreedom.com/patient_videos.php
    

Dr. Ed Boshnick can be reached at:
305-271-8206 
Miami, FL