The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs agreed Monday to pay $925,000 to a man whose eyeball exploded during a routine outpatient cataract operation at the West Haven Veterans Affairs hospital.
The settlement, on behalf of 60-year-old Jose Goncalves, of Hartford, was reached as the case was being prepared for trial in U.S. District Court here.
According to the lawsuit, Goncalves was blinded in his right eye when a third-year resident at the VA hospital incorrectly administered an anesthetic during the Nov. 1, 2007, procedure.
Bernard said Dr. Yue Michelle Wang, the resident, incorrectly placed a needle with a local anesthetic “directly into Jose’s eye instead of behind the eye as was proper. Then, failing to recognize her error, she proceeded to inject so much anesthetic, so quickly, that Jose’s eye literally exploded.”
Good thing people are fighting to put caps on these frivolous lawsuits.
