Loss of Sight Claim

If you have received substandard treatment for a health issue involving your eyes and vision, you may be entitled to make a claim for compensation. JMW’s medical negligence team is here to provide expert legal support and advice through every stage of the legal process, and help you claim compensation that takes into account the full effects of your loss of sight.

Making a claim for your vision loss can help you secure the compensation to which you are entitled following medical negligence and help you to move on with your life. When you make a claim for your vision loss, losses and financial outgoings related to your vision problems will be taken into account, and the compensation will also account for the pain and suffering you have experienced.

At JMW, our solicitors have many years of experience in securing compensation for those who have experienced clinical negligence, and will assist you in putting together a strong case to give you the best possible chance of a successful loss of sight claim.

Speak to our expert solicitors today by calling JMW on 0345 872 6666, or complete our online enquiry form, and we will get back to you as soon as we can to discuss your options. We can handle cases on a no win, no fee basis.

How JMW Can Help

At JMW, we have supported clients in a wide variety of vision loss claims. Our clinical negligence team is headed by leading solicitors Eddie Jones and Angharad Hughes and is highly regarded throughout the UK. Our team includes members of the Law Society’s specialist panel for clinical negligence solicitors and the Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) solicitors panel. 

We understand how distressing these experiences can be and how complex the process of making a legal claim might seem. This is why we will always take a professional and proactive approach and support you throughout your claim.

Some of the areas we specialise in include:

• Cataract treatment claims
• Glaucoma treatment claims
• Retinal detachment claims
• Temporal arteritis claims
• Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) claims

JMW's clinical negligence solicitors are highly experienced in helping people who have suffered due to negligence on the part of a medical professional. Call us to start the process of claiming compensation relating to your vision loss.

Meet Our Team

JMW’s team of medical negligence experts have a thorough understanding of how an injury resulting in loss of sight can affect your life, and a strong track record of successfully securing compensation for people like you.

How Does Negligence Cause Reduced Vision?

Clinical negligence can lead to vision impairment in a range of ways, from delays in diagnosis or referral to a specialist to surgical errors that result in an eye injury. Compensation claims are possible in a range of cases, provided you have experienced medical negligence which resulted in a degree of vision loss.

Common circumstances in which you may be able to claim compensation include:

Delayed or missed diagnosis

Many eye conditions progress quickly, and early treatment often determines the outcome. Negligence may occur when symptoms are overlooked, misinterpreted, or not investigated promptly. Examples include:

• If warning signs of glaucoma are missed, the increased pressure inside the eye can damage the optic nerve. Warning signs include eye pain, halos around lights, or vision changes. If they are not acted on promptly, the damage can become permanent, and this may represent negligence.
• Sudden flashes, floaters, or loss of peripheral vision could be signs of retinal detachment that require urgent action. Any delay in referring a patient to emergency ophthalmology can lead to irreversible sight loss.
• Diabetic retinopathy can progress without intervention if doctors fail to carry out routine screening or miss abnormalities during examinations. This may entitle you to make an eye injury claim.
• If high blood pressure or certain autoimmune conditions are left untreated, the risk of retinal damage or inflammation that can harm vision increases.

Errors during surgery

Ophthalmic procedures require precision and mistakes can lead to serious outcomes. Some examples include:

• Incorrect lens selection, damage to eye structures, or failing to manage infection during and following cataract surgery, leading to long-term vision problems.
• Laser eye surgery errors such as inaccurate measurements resulting in blurred vision, halos, or permanent visual impairment.
• Infection after surgery due to inadequate sterilisation or poor post-operative care, causing infections such as endophthalmitis, leading to blindness if not treated urgently.

Medication and treatment errors

Certain medications must be used carefully to avoid damage to the eye, and mistakes in prescribing them can entitle you to make a compensation claim.

Loss of sight may arise if a doctor:

• Prescribes medication that is known to cause ocular damage without proper monitoring.
• Administers the wrong drug or incorrect dosage.
• Fails to inform patients about side effects that require urgent attention.

Failure to refer to a specialist

If a GP or general clinician identifies symptoms linked to a possible eye condition but does not refer the patient to an ophthalmologist promptly, the delay can allow damage to progress. Progressive conditions such as macular degeneration, optic neuritis, or serious infections can worsen quickly without targeted treatment.

If a diagnosis or referral happens in time, there is still a risk of delayed treatment making the problem worse, and this could entitle you to compensation.

Inadequate follow-up or aftercare

After surgery or treatment, patients often need close monitoring. A lack of proper follow-up can mean complications such as swelling, pressure changes, or infections are missed until vision is already affected.

These are not the only examples of negligence that can lead to a loss of vision compensation claim. If your eye injury occurred as a result of any of these circumstances, or in another way that you believe involved negligence, speak to the team at JMW for advice on making a claim.

What Is the Compensation Claims Process for Vision Loss ?

If anything goes wrong during your eye treatment, you could sustain a serious eye injury and, in the worst cases, experience full or partial blindness. Access to expert legal advice is essential in order to evaluate whether you can make a claim for compensation and provide support through the claims process, which can help to put you back in the best possible position following a loss of sight in one or both eyes.

If you think you may have fallen victim to clinical negligence and be eligible for compensation, our specialist solicitors are on hand to discuss your options with you. We can gather evidence such as medical records related to your sight loss and medical reports from independent experts assessing the severity of your injuries. This will also help us to calculate how much compensation you may be owed.

JMW will send a letter of claim to the party we believe was responsible with the details of your vision loss claim, and they will have a few months to investigate the circumstances and decide whether or not to accept liability. If they admit their liability, we can proceed directly to negotiating how much compensation you may be owed.

If the other party denies liability, the claim may be taken to court. Your solicitor will represent you throughout court proceedings and present your evidence to a judge to secure compensation that is tailored to your specific needs.

We will always aim to settle the claim with the best possible outcome for your circumstances at the earliest opportunity to help you move on with your life, and will work to obtain interim payments wherever possible to help pay for any immediate care you may require. We usually take on claims under a no win, no fee agreement, which allows you to pursue compensation without financial risk.

How Much Compensation Can I Get for a Vision Loss Claim?

Vision loss compensation is different in every case, as it is calculated based on the specific pain, suffering and financial losses you have experienced due to your eye injury. Compensation is broken into general damages and special damages. The first element of your compensation is based on the specific harm you experienced, with the most serious injuries, such as full vision loss in one or both eyes, resulting in more compensation than minor eye injuries. The compensation values in these cases are based on the Judicial College Guidelines, which specify ranges for each type of injury.

Special damages account for the financial impact of your injury. This means any medical costs, lost earnings, travel costs to and from appointments, and adaptations you need to accommodate permanent vision loss will be covered by your compensation claim. The amount you will receive depends on the receipts you can provide for these expenses, and on expert estimations of how much future medical expenses or other things you need for the future may cost.

Q

What is ophthalmology?

A

Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine that concerns the medical and surgical management of the health of the eyes. Those who specialise in medical and surgical eye problems are called ophthalmologists, and it is their job to diagnose, treat and prevent eye disorders, as well as looking after the patient’s vision in general.

An ophthalmologist will typically treat conditions such as:

• Cataracts - a condition that sees the lens of the eye lose transparency
• Glaucoma - occurs when there is an increase in fluid pressure inside the eyes
• Corneal pathology - a category of diseases affecting the front of the eyeball (the cornea)
• Inflammation within the eye
• Squinting
• Problems of the retina, including detachment, tears and bleeding
• Temporal arteritis - a condition in which the arteries in the temples become inflamed, resulting in vision problems
• Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) - a condition affecting the central part of a person’s vision

Q

What are the different types of ophthalmology surgery?

A

Ophthalmology can involve many different types of surgery, including:

• Glaucoma surgery
• Cataract surgery
• Corneal transplants
• Surgery to fix retinal disorders
• Surgery relating to the eye socket
• Cosmetic surgery around the eye

These surgical methods generally deliver positive outcomes for patients, but unfortunately in a small minority of cases errors can occur during treatment, resulting in injury or vision loss. When this happens as a result of clinical negligence, you may be able to make a claim for compensation.