The estate of a South Carolina patient has filed a lawsuit against Charleston, S.C.-based Roper St. Francis Healthcare, the Retina Eye Center of Charleston (S.C.), Carolina Eye Care Physicians and Lowrey King, MD, accusing Dr. King of operating on the wrong eye, according to an Aug. 22 report from local news affiliate WCSC.
The lawsuit was filed by the estate of former patient James Sams, who has since passed away. In 2021, Mr. Sams was having vision problems in his left eye. Roper St. Francis and Retina Eye informed him he would need surgery on the left eye.
On the day of the surgery, hospital staff prepared Mr. Sams' left eye for a pars plana vitrectomy, but in the operating room, Dr. King allegedly performed "an unnecessary, nonconsensual and inappropriate vitrectomy" on Mr. Sams' right eye, failing to render treatment on the left, according to the suit.
Court documents allege that Dr. King did not realize he had operated on the wrong eye until Mr. Sams was in recovery. The lawsuit states that Mr. Sams was essentially blind in the months following the incident.
The lawsuit seeks actual and punitive damages and court costs. St. Francis did not respond to a request to comment on the lawsuit, according to the report.