Retinopathy of Prematurity-Georgia
We are a dedicated group of lawyers that have joined forces in order to hold accountable healthcare practitioners and hospitals who failed to diagnose and treat your baby's Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). If this is your situation, we will represent you and your family to ensure that the necessary financial and social resources are recovered to compensate you for the spiraling cost of future medical care. Your beautiful child will have many needs in the years ahead; We can help prepare you.
What causes Retinopathy of Prematurity?
ROP occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow and spread
throughout the retina, the tissue that lines the back of the eye. These
abnormal blood vessels are fragile and can leak, scarring the retina
and pulling it out of position. This causes a retinal detachment.
Retinal detachment is the main cause of visual impairment and blindness
in ROP.
Medical experts believe that the periphery of the retina
sends out signals to other areas of the retina for nourishment. As a
result, new abnormal vessels begin to grow. These new blood vessels are
fragile, weak, and can bleed, leading to retinal scarring. When these
scars shrink, they pull on the retina, causing it to detach from the
back of the eye.
Most premature infants are either born/or treated at children’s hospitals or other pediatric hospital units within general hospitals.
How is ROP treated?
The most effective proven treatments for ROP are laser therapy
or cryotherapy. Laser therapy "burns away" the periphery of the retina,
which has no normal blood vessels. With cryotherapy, physicians use an
instrument that generates freezing temperatures to briefly touch spots
on the surface of the eye that overlie the periphery of the retina.
Both laser treatment and cryotherapy destroy the peripheral areas of
the retina, slowing or reversing the abnormal growth of blood vessels.
Unfortunately, the treatments also destroy some side vision. This is done to save the most important part of our sight—the sharp, central vision we need for "straight ahead" activities such as reading, sewing, and driving.
Both laser treatments and cryotherapy are performed only on infants with advanced ROP, particularly stage III with "plus disease." Both treatments are considered invasive surgeries on the eye, and doctors don't know the long-term side effects of each.Medical Wrongdoing?
A misdiagnosis is what has led to your child's Retinopathy of Prematurity. While all doctors are humans and they make mistakes like anyone else, they have been trained to identify if a baby may have this disease. However, It was their responsibility to prevent ROP from happening.
There is a time window for specialists known as pediatric retinal ophthalmologists to treat your baby’s eyes, after which the likelihood of successful surgery drops significantly. In order to determine whether or not your childs ROP was preventable, we must obtain copies of all medical records, including photographs and x-rays. Those records, in turn, must be examined by expert medical doctors who specialize in the treatment of ROP. Since the number of specialists is extremely small, it requires skill and experience to gain access to these physicians. After the consultation between a lawyer and doctor, a determination will be made whether or not there was substandard care in your child’s particular case
Our lawyers have handled cases where we learned that ROP resulted from a medical mistake. We understand the frustration and stress a family faces every single day to see that special needs are accomplished promptly and professionally for a blind child.