Malaga court orders insurer to pay €41,000 after clinic delay leaves patient blind in one eye

The provincial court found that the delay allowed his retinal detachment to worsen and made subsequent treatment more difficult.

The man left the clinic without regaining sight in his left eye after undergoing a capsulotomy, a laser procedure that doctors later told the court was not particularly complex and should have restored his vision within one or two days. That did not happen.

After several days without improvement, he called the medical centre to report the problem. However, the clinic kept his follow-up appointment for a month later rather than bringing it forward. When doctors finally examined him, they diagnosed a retinal detachment that would require several operations.

More than a decade after the procedure, the court has ruled that the doctor should have acted on the man's call and examined him "immediately". The court partially overturned an earlier ruling that had rejected the claim and ordered the insurer to pay 41,622.75 euros, plus the applicable interest, to the man's heirs. He died while the legal proceedings were still under way.

The case dates back to 12 September 2013. The man had visual acuity of 0.2 in his left eye and an opaque posterior capsule, so doctors performed a capsulotomy. The ruling makes clear that the decision to use the procedure was not at issue. The specialists who gave evidence agreed that it was clinically justified.

Instead, the family challenged what happened afterwards. Although the patient told the clinic that he could not see, staff kept his follow-up appointment for 16 October: one month and four days after the surgery.

The first court did not accept that the telephone call had taken place. After reviewing the evidence and medical records, however, the provincial court reached the opposite conclusion.

The man's brother, who accompanied him to the surgery, and his wife both testified that he had called the clinic a few days later because he still could not see. The judges said it would be "unreasonable" to expect someone to keep the receipt for a telephone call made years earlier in distress and with no expectation that the matter might eventually end up in court.

The doctor's own notes from the subsequent examination also recorded that the patient had poor vision and "did not improve after the capsulotomy". According to the court, this matched the family's account that he never regained his sight after the procedure. The judges therefore found it proven that the man had made the call and that the clinic had failed to respond to it.

When he finally attended the appointment on 16 October, doctors diagnosed an inferior retinal detachment involving the macula. This marked the beginning of a long series of procedures.

He underwent four surgeries in Malaga between October 2013 and July 2014. After suffering another retinal detachment, he travelled to Barcelona for further surgery. On 10 November 2014, doctors removed the intraocular lens from his left eye because of ocular hypertension.

The panel of judges said doctors should have examined the man immediately after he reported that he still could not see. The delay allowed proliferative vitreoretinopathy to develop alongside the retinal detachment, making recovery considerably more difficult despite the subsequent operations.

The court criticised the decision to retain the original appointment date despite the circumstances the patient had reported. It therefore held the doctor liable and, consequently, his insurer.

In calculating the compensation, the provincial court awarded 429.78 euros for six days in hospital and 22,189.44 for 381 days of temporary incapacity. It also awarded 7,281.10 euros for permanent impairment and cosmetic damage, plus a ten per cent uplift on that amount.

The court further recognised 10,994.32 euros in medical expenses, accommodation costs in Barcelona and train travel.

However, it rejected the 19,115.19-euro claim for partial permanent incapacity because the case did not establish how the injuries affected the man's ability to work or carry out his everyday activities.

Review public health, medical care and clinical news