The Texas Supreme Court has reversed an appeals court dismissal of a medical malpractive lawsuit. The high court ruled that an expert’s report cited in the dismissal is good enough for the case to go to trial. The suit over a botched eye surgery was filed by Barbara Baty against certified registered nurse anesthetist Olga Futrelle.
Baty claimed in her medical malpractice lawsuit that Futrelle damaged her optic nerve when administering anesthesia before her eye surgery.
Baty says she permanent nerve damage and vision loss after cataract surgery on her left eye. According to the lawsuit, the first attempt to anesthetize failed and that in the second attempt, Futrelle hit Baty’s optical nerve when injecting anesthesia.
The error led to Baty’s loss of vision, the suit says.
Baty had provided a report from a medical expert as evidence that the anesthesiologist caused the injuries and damage. The expert’s report stated that the facts indicate that Baty’s optic nerve was damaged by the anesthesia administered by Futrelle.
Futrelle and her attorney argued that the expert’s report did not contain enough detail about what should have been done differently in the procedure on Baty.
The trial court agreed with Futrelle’s argument and dismissed the case. The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision, but the state’s high court has reversed the lower courts’ decisions.
The case has been remanded to back to the trial court for more proceedings, which means that the plaintiff and her medical malpractice attorney will get the opportunity to present their evidence and argument.
