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A St. Louis County Jury found Northern Refractive Surgery Center negligent in its care and treatment of a man who underwent LASIK surgery at the center, and awarded him over $3 million in damages.
Lowell Larson, 34, filed the medical malpractice lawsuit last year against Northern Refractive Surgery Center and Dr. Jeffrey R. Weis after he claimed the defendants failed to adequately warn him of the risks associated with the LASIK eye surgery procedure, given the size of his larger-than-average pupils.
The lawsuit alleged the defendants didn’t properly measure Larson’s pupils or screen him for the procedure. Larson claimed the negligent treatment and care directly resulted in “significant and permanent disturbances in his vision, particularly at night.”
The eight-member jury found that Northern Refractive Surgery was liable for causing harm to the plaintiff and awarded Larson more than $3 million for the losses he suffered as a result of his injury.
Additionally, jurors determined the defendants would compensate $312,500 for pain, disability, embarrassment and the emotional distress Larson suffered up to the date of the trial and $2,950 for medical expenses up to the time of the trial.
Plaintiff attorney Michael A. Zimmer said that while the eye injury hasn’t affected Larson’s career, it has significantly affected his quality of life.
“There was no wage loss, no significant medical expense,” Zimmer said. “It was a quality of life issue. When it gets dark, his world changes from ours. When it’s dark and his pupils are fully dilated, he sees starbursts, halos. On a dark road when a vehicle approaches him, the oncoming lights become virtually blinding for him.”
Furthermore, Zimmer said, “It was good to see the jury look beyond wage loss and those types of things and looked for what it is like for somebody 34 years old and has a life expectancy of 43 (more) years and has to live like this with apparently nothing you can do about it.”
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