Cleveland Retinopathy of Prematurity Attorneys

How Should Doctors Diagnose ROP?

Over the years, the medical community has identified protocols for effectively diagnosing and treating ROP. Because there is no way to predict which babies will develop severe ROP, premature newborns, babies who weigh less than 3.5 pounds at birth, or babies whose neonatologists believe them to be high risk should be referred for ROP screening and examination.

Typically, premature babies are screened regularly from birth until the condition is detected, or until normal retinal development is identified.

Under this approach, ROP can be appropriately and quickly diagnosed and proven therapies applied to stop the progression and save a baby’s sight.

Unfortunately, premature babies may not be monitored as carefully as they should be to detect the condition, leading to partial or total vision loss. Sometimes this is the result of inadequate or negligent medical care.

Who’s Responsible For My Child’s ROP?

Determining who can be held at fault for your child’s condition and liable for the resulting damages depends on the facts of your case.

Medical malpractice claims are fact-specific matters, and in-depth investigations will be needed to evaluate whether providers involved in your child’s care (including hospitals, neonatal ICUs, neonatologists, pediatricians, or ophthalmologists) failed to uphold the standard of care, which generally means:

A health care provider, when treating a patient, failed to act as a reasonably skilled and trained health professional in their field of medicine would have acted under the same or similar circumstances.

The standard of care can be different from case to case, but failures to uphold accepted medical standards are generally the result of negligence. In terms of ROP, studies show this may involve:

• Failure to properly diagnose and manage ROP;
• Failure to refer newborns for ROP screening, or follow up with their care;
• Failure to adequately supervise medical residents, PAs, or other providers who provide care under the delegation or supervision of physicians;
• Ophthalmology errors, including failure to diagnose or failure to follow up;
• Improper use of oxygen therapy or overventilation.

What Compensation Can Families Recover?

Children with ROP resulting in partial or total blindness can face a lifetime of considerable limitations. Families as a whole can also experience significant emotional and financial strains created by the need to provide specialized care, accommodations, and support as their child grows and matures with low vision or blindness.

By pursuing medical malpractice claims, families who have suffered as a result of medical negligence can seek financial compensation for their damages. This may include both the economic and non-economic losses arising from their child’s preventable condition, including:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Future costs associated with accommodations, therapy, and low vision / blindness;
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional anguish
• Lost income and lost future wages.

As with many birth injury cases, medical malpractice claims filed over ROP focus largely on the losses babies and families will likely face in the future.

Calculating these future damages requires insight from medical experts who can attest to the severity of a child’s condition, their prognosis, and how it will impact their lives and those of their loved ones. It may also require insight from financial experts who can assist in calculating projected future expenses and other economic losses associated with the child’s condition – especially if it may prevent a child or their parents from working and earning meaningful income.

At The Becker Law Firm, our legal team has extensive experience litigating birth injury cases and calculating victims’ damages, and we have access to highly skilled medical experts and expert witnesses who aid in building the evidence to support an effective claim.

Common ROP Treatments

The degree of injury to a baby typically depends on how prematurely the baby was born. These injuries fall across a spectrum, ranging from nearsightedness to total vision loss.

Babies who face this condition early in life are at a greater risk to eventually develop other eye conditions, including strabismus, glaucoma, cataracts, and myopia.

When retinopathy of prematurity is detected early, treatment can offer a chance for normal vision. Treatments include:

• Oxygen treatment
• Freezing to prevent abnormal blood vessels from spreading (cryotherapy)
• Laser therapy to prevent abnormal blood vessels from spreading (photocoagulation)
• Surgery to repair detached retinas

Babies who are born prematurely should be treated with oxygen, which can stimulate the growth of blood vessels in the eyes.