Summary:
A long-term steroid prescription, given without the monitoring it requires, costs a young mother her sight.
Key Points:
- The patient was prescribed steroid eye drops for three years without adequate pressure monitoring
- Develops steroid-induced glaucoma and loses vision in both eyes
- Settlement of more than $2 million
Case Details:
Steroid eye drops are a common and useful medication. They also carry well-recognised risks. One of the most serious is steroid-induced glaucoma, a rise in pressure inside the eye that, if not detected and managed, will damage the optic nerve and steal sight. The medical literature on this risk is decades old, and the standard of care includes regular pressure checks at appropriate intervals throughout treatment.
Our client was a woman in her late thirties when she first attended an ophthalmologist for ongoing management of her eye health. Although she had previously undergone eye surgery, she could see, work and live a full life, including raising her young child, who had been conceived through IVF.
Following the surgery, the ophthalmologist had placed her on steroid eye drops for approximately three years. Throughout that period, intraocular pressure was not adequately monitored or addressed. The focus of treatment also remained almost exclusively on her left eye, with the right eye, in effect, ignored.
While breastfeeding her child one day, our client realised she could no longer see the baby in her arms. The vision in her left eye had collapsed. Examination revealed dangerously elevated pressure consistent with steroid-induced glaucoma. By that stage, glaucoma had also developed in her untreated right eye.
Carbone Lawyers acted for her in proceedings alleging the ophthalmologist had failed to monitor pressure during a prolonged course of steroid therapy, and had failed to detect glaucoma developing in either eye.
The defence was vigorous. At one point, the defendants applied to compel our client to undergo genetic testing for a hereditary predisposition to glaucoma. We argued that even a predisposition would not absolve the doctor of the duty to manage a known risk. The court agreed, and the application was refused.
Outcome:
The matter was resolved for more than $2 million, including costs. No settlement can restore lost vision. Our client also lives with the knowledge that the medications and complications connected to her condition mean she cannot have further children, as she had hoped for.