Eyes Wide Open: Mixed Verdict for Woman Who Sued Over Botched Eyelid Surgery

Marilyn Leisz had several cosmetic surgery procedures on her eyelids. When one procedure left Leisz with bumps on her eyelids, she went to Dr. Paul Parker for another surgery to correct it. Parker says he warned Leisz that the surgery could result in difficulty closing her eyes, due to a series of previous procedures in the same area. Leisz decided to have the elective procedure anyway.

After the surgery, Leisz was unable to close her eyes completely or blink without effort. Blinking keeps eyes moistened, so Leisz has to use eyedrops to prevent damage to her eyes from drying and sleep with a humidifier. She also claims that she is unable to play tennis or raquetball, garden or swim. There was nothing to address why goggles or protective glasses wouldn’t enable Leisz to perform those activities, but she decided to sue Dr. Parker for the loss of eyelid function.

The verdict returned by a jury was mixed. While Leisz was awarded $115,000 and the jury found that Dr. Parker deviated from the standard of care by performing the surgery in the first place, they also rejected Leisz’s claim that she was not warned of the risk of incomplete eye closure. {NorthJersey.com}

Attorneys for both parties claimed the decision as a victory. Leisz’s lawyer said he was “happy to win a malpractice case, because they’re so difficult.”

Parker’s attorney said “over the years I’ve gotten to know a lot of doctors, and Dr. Parker is an extremely competent plastic surgeon. This is a woman who had 10 or more plastic surgeries. She certainly knew there were risks. The extremely modest judgment shows that the jury thought Dr. Parker was competent, too.”

Screenshot of Marilyn Leisz via Jezebel