removed the first implant
in December 1996, Dr. Marvelli noted that it had scarred in as it should have,
and that it had been pushed through the pupil and was hanging, that it was not a
rotational problem, and it did not just fall through the pupil. The tissue was
ripped and torn and traumatized. In his opinion, Alston's rubbing had dislocated
it.
The following April, when Alston reported that she had fallen out of bed
morning and struck her eye, the iris was again ripped and torn; it was not just
a dislocation. Dr. Marvelli removed the second implant and sewed up the
iridectomy in May 1997. A month later, in June, Alston reported a sudden onset
of pain, and Dr. Marvelli believed she was rubbing her eyes again. The eye was
being abused, in his opinion. Aniris is not torn, he said, without trauma.
Again, in July, he attributed Alston's acute onset of pain and sudden swelling
of the cornea with inflammation to trauma. By August of 1997, Alston's eye had
improved enough to place another implant.
Concerned that her cornea might break down from repeated trauma, Dr. Marvelli
nevertheless felt that another implant was Alston's only option to recover her
vision. In performing the fourth surgery in August 1997, Dr. Marvelli widened
the old incision with fresh tissue to promote healing, placing the new lens in
the same position as before. After the last implant, he said, the lens stayed in
position. At that point, the iridectomy had been sutured shut. However, by
October 1997, the cornea was decompensating. He did not think the eye was going
to survive.
In Dr. Marvelli's opinion, placing the