LASIK malpractice plaintiff can keep $7.2M award, judge rules
A judge in the Denver suburbs ruled last week that a pilot could keep the $7.2 million jury award in his medical-malpractice case involving LASIK eye surgery, even though Colorado has a $1 million cap on economic damages. (Photo from Shutterstock)
A judge in the Denver suburbs ruled last week that a pilot could keep the $7.2 million jury award in his medical-malpractice case involving LASIK eye surgery, even though Colorado has a $1 million cap on economic damages.
Entering a final judgment April 16, Judge Chantel Contiguglia of the Jefferson County District Court in Colorado found that the harm done was so severe that she would make an exception for a pilot claiming damages for lost wages.
Nicholas Lara, a 24-year-old commercial pilot, underwent voluntary LASIK eye surgery to improve his vision in 2023. However, Lara had a medical condition that prevented him from being a candidate for LASIK. Lara didn’t know that he had the condition, and the LASIKPlus clinic that he went to didn’t catch the error until after the procedure was complete. As a result, Lara developed progressive and incurable vision loss, according to a story by Law.com.
The jury verdict was returned in February.
“While the lost future earnings awarded to [the] plaintiff are perhaps uniquely high, [the] plaintiff’s projected future earnings and earnings capacity are uniquely high,” Contiguglia wrote. “Expert testimony provided that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, [the] plaintiff will lose his lucrative career as a pilot.”
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