DHD Trial Victory – Mark Petraske Secures 9th Consecutive Defense Jury Verdict

Mark Petraske secured another defense verdict after a 9-day trial in Middlesex County.  Plaintiff alleged that a cataract surgery was performed improperly that resulted in a near loss of vision in the eye.  During the insertion of the artificial lens the trailing haptic broke which required the artificial lens to be cut up and removed piece by piece.  A new lens was inserted, and the patient was seen on post operative day one.  On post op day one the cornea was noted to have significant edema, a known risk of any cataract surgery.  The patient had a history of uveitis and an ocular herpes virus that was quite in the eye leading up to surgery.  The defendant doctor believed that the virus may have been reactivated due to required extra surgery and began an aggressive course of therapy to resolve the corneal edema.  Ultimately, she achieved 20/50 vision under the doctor’s care but could not recover the central portion of the cornea and a referral to a corneal specialist was made.  After consulting with several cornea specialists, the plaintiff underwent a cornea transplant but due to some technical issues only achieved a 20/400, uncorrected vision.  She now must wear a scleral lens to be able to correct to 20/25.  The defense argued that many of the things she is claiming as current complaints pre-existed the surgery, and that her complaints of vertigo were not ocular complaints at all and were being treated by a neurologist on referral from her ophthalmologist.   The jury returned a verdict of 5-1 in favor of the doctor, after just under an hour of deliberations.  This defense verdict continues a streak of 9 defense jury verdicts — in 5 different counties — since May 2022.