lens horizontally would not have
protected the eye from rubbing or trauma sufficient to disrupt the scarring-in
of the haptics and to dislodge the lens and push it through the pupil. Once
pushed and rotated, the lens would be free-floating and would keep on going, no
matter where it had been placed. In his opinion, his treatment and care of
Alston was not negligent or the cause of the loss of Alston's eye. The cause of
the loss of Alston's eye, he testified, was the epithelial downgrowth, which
resulted from repeated trauma to her eye that was clearly progressive.
Dr. Robert Wayne Bowman, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for fourteen years, as well as a
clinical practitioner, testified the lens was in place when Alston came to him
on November 17, 1997.He diagnosed hypotony or low pressure, in the right eye,
and a wound leak located at what looked like the site of a surgical incision. He
performed several procedures to attempt to save Alston's eye from the epithelial
downgrowth, which was brought on by the wound leak. In his opinion, the loss of
the eye was caused by the wound leak.
Dr. Bowman testified that options with a sector iridectomy are to suture it
shut or to let the lens rest on the sclera spur, as he said Dr. Marvelli first
attempted. Typically, he said, a lens would be inserted from the side and
oriented horizontally at the 3:00 and 9:00 o'clock position, but Dr. Bowman was
aware of surgeons who routinely insert the lens from the superior position as
was done by Dr. Marvelli. In his opinion,