Over five million kroner in damages for laser malpractice

OSLO.After laser treatment.Photo : Sara Johannessen / SCANPIX NB! Modellklarert

28 people have received compensation for correction of their eyesight using  laser treatment in the period 2009 to 2015.

A total of more than five million kroner has been paid in damages,  the Norwegian System of Patient Injury Compensation (NPE) said. All of the 28 patients claimed  their laser vision correction in private healthcare was a case of malpractice.
15 of the cases involve errors of the treatment, like that the patient never should have undergone that kind of surgery in the first place, because of health reasons. Some patients had undergone surgery several times, because it did not bring satisfactory results the first time they did so, which in turn lead to injuries for the patients.

The injuries of the patients included impaired vision, dry eyes, blurred vision, headaches, stinging eyes and increased sensitivity to light after the operations. Many of these cases also concerned infection or contagions, including patients experiencing corneal inflammation after surgery.

A total of 68 people who claimed compensation candidates have been rejected, most of them because the operation and monitoring has been performed correctly and that the problems exprienced after the operation are among the problems that often are the sideeffects of such a treatment.
These patients also received sufficient information in advance about the risk of problems after such an operation, NPE believes.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today