Few things are as devastating as losing your eyesight. Loss of eyesight can lead to loss of independence, loss of career, and loss of ability to do many of things we take for granted. At McKeen and Associates, we fight for those who have suffered this devastation and experienced the preventative loss of vision due to physician negligence.
Glaucoma – the second leading cause of blindness in the United States — and papilledema are very serious eye conditions characterized by elevated intraocular pressure. When fluid within the eye cannot adequately drain, intraocular pressures rise which in-turn crushes the optic nerve. Patients rely on their physician to appreciate the dangers of intraocular pressure. When a physician fails to take appropriate action to reduce those pressures, irreversible blindness results.
Attorneys Brian McKeen and Todd Schroeder of McKeen and Associates recently filed two suits on behalf of a patients who are now blind due to medical negligence. One glaucoma patient was treated for elevated intraocular pressures. Despite critically elevated intraocular pressures, the physician inexplicably failed to recognize the need for immediate surgical intervention, leading to her permanent irreversible blindness.
The second patient presented to the emergency department with intense headaches due to elevated intraocular pressure. Despite having knowledge that her pressures were markedly above normal, the physicians and hospital discharged her without treating her pressures. Predictably, this young 25-year-old woman, who was the sole caregiver for her disabled child, lost her eyesight.
Intraocular pressure should always be taken seriously and treated to prevent such devastating and preventable consequences from happening.
