Michael Boylan LLP secured €550,000 in damages for a minor whose vision was damaged following laser surgery for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) when he was a newborn.
Retinopathy of prematurity is an eye condition that can affect babies born prematurely. In a full-term baby, the blood vessels in the retina finish growing before birth. In premature babies those vessels are still developing, and in ROP they can grow in an abnormal way. In severe cases this can pull on the retina and damage vision.
The laser surgery damaged our client's left eye. It was suggested that the laser beam hit and ruptured the capsule and the ciliary body, causing the eye to become hypotonus and inflamed. The visual prognosis for the left eye was very poor. Our client is currently legally blind in his left eye and is long-sighted in his right eye.
It was our position that our client was treated unnecessarily for ROP, and that the condition was likely to have regressed spontaneously without intervention and without any adverse outcome. A central issue was the staging of his ROP: in our view, plus disease would have had to be present in two or more quadrants for treatment to have been justified, and he did not meet that criterion.
The defendant denied liability in full and maintained that treating both eyes was appropriate and in accordance with the practice of the majority of paediatric ophthalmologists at that time. The action settled and was ruled for €550,000 plus all legal costs on the hearing date.