referred Alston to Dr. Robert Wayne Bowman, an ophthalmologist in
Dallas. Dr. Bowman attempted to save Alston's eye by gluing a contact lens to
the surface of her eye to seal the wound. Two days later the lens came unglued.
After a second attempt to glue the contact lens was unsuccessful, he attempted
other procedures, including a corneal transplant, which also failed. Finally, he
removed the iris and froze the eye in an effort to remove residual epithelial
cells. Because of the wound leak, Alston's eye continued to lose pressure, began
to collapse, and ultimately died. On January 9, 1999, Alston underwent surgery
to remove her eye, which was replaced by a prosthetic eyeball.
Alston filed suit against Dr. Marvelli, claiming negligence and gross
negligence. Her expert, Dr. Norman Jaffe, testified by video deposition at trial
that Dr. Marvellibreached the standard of care by inserting the implants from
the top or "superior" position, not positioning them horizontally at
the 3:00 and 9:00 o'clock position, and operating through the same incision on
four separate occasions In his opinion, placement of the implants over or near
the sector iridectomy increased the chance of dislocation. With horizontal
placement, dislocation of the implants in the first and second surgeries would
have been extremely unlikely and would have prevented the necessity of the
multiple surgeries. In his opinion, operating through the same incision on all
four surgeries also contributed to the loss of the eye. As a result, Dr. Jaffe
said, the wound leak developed, allowing the epithelial downgrowth to invade,
which caused the loss of the eye.
The jury found the negligence of both Dr. Marvelli and Alston was a proximate
cause