Marilyn Leisz has a novel tort lawsuit in Paterson, New Jersey. A jury is deliberating over her claim that Bergen County plastic surgeon Dr. Paul Parker botched her plastic surgery so that she can no longer close her eyes.
Parker was retained to perform an eyelid surgery called a blepharoplasty.
What makes the case a difficult one is that Parker was the last of a line of doctors who did plastic surgery on Leisz. A prior doctor left bumps on her eyelids and Leisz went to Parker to correct the problem. She alleges that he never warned her of the risks of the procedure and that she later found that she was not a good candidate for such a procedure.
There is also the challenge of determining the damages in such a case. Leisz insists that she can no longer do a variety of sports and other activities. She is the mother of two and the damages should obviously be quite high. This is the type of injury that is likely to appall jurors. That makes it all the more important for Parker’s lawyers to win on the merits. They are arguing that she was warned of the risks and that there was no negligence in the surgery. No procedure is risk free and Parker’s lawyers are arguing that he performed the operation according to standards of a reasonable surgeon in his area of expertise.
Parker’s background is stated on his site:
Dr. Parker graduated Magna Cum Laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa from Union College in Schenectady, New York. He subsequently graduated from George Washington University of Medicine in Washington, DC, where he was the recipient of the distinguished CV Mosby Award of Excellence.
Dr. Parker completed residencies in both General Surgery and Plastic Surgery at New York University Medical Center and while there received the Theodore Barnett Award for Excellence in Teaching. During this training, he spent six months at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital exclusively learning cosmetic surgery techniques with some of the acknowledged masters in the field. He also completed a fellowship in Microsurgery at New York University Medical Center’s Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery with heavy emphasis on innovative methods of breast reconstruction.
Source: Gothamist
Jonathan Turley
What an awful thing to have happen to someone who is trying to improve their looks!
This s one of those thing that reminds me of how serious this is. Research and consultations are so important.
This is just terrible! You trust your surgeon with your safety and to have something botched so bad is terrible. It is so important to check out peoples credentials and maybe talk to some of their patients. I hope she is able to get her eyes fixed.
Tony –
You conveniently ignore the fact that I’m throat-deep in the medical profession myself. There is nothing wrong with the “profession,” that a honest house cleaning wouldn’t cure.
Let me ask you this: if in your own profession, you became aware that 17 people die everyday, due to nothing more than crappy handwriting – would you just sort of stay quiet? Wouldn’t want to create a little stir?
Ask Sidney Wolfe, Md; Barbara Starfield, MD; Kay McVay, RN; Patty Skolnich (founder of Citizens for Accountability); J Donald Foster (U.S. Dist. Attorney who specilizes in physician-related crimes) and several hundred other folks easily found on the ‘net, if our collective ire isn’t way overdue. Ask Shannon Brownlee (author of “Overtreated”) if she doesn’t get thousands of thank you notes. Why do you suppose that is?
No, what you’re seeing is simply people who have each come face-to-face with garbage in lab coats, and decided enough is enough.
The fact is, I generally stay on topic and likely contribute fewer than a handful of notes in any given month. Far less than half of them mention health care at all.
My guess is, you haven’t yet been slapped in the face, with the reality of bad medicine, odds are you will.
Here’s what one of my respected colleagues at USC has to say:
http://www.reportingonhealth.org/blogs/doctors-behaving-badly-warned-about-doctor%E2%80%99s-dungeon-14-years-ago-hospital-shrugged
Here’s why letting people know is critical:
http://www.truecrimereport.com/2010/01/earl_bradley_pedophile_pediatr.php
If and when that marvelous day comes, when otherwise decent, competent and ethical physicians stop pulling the same crap as the Catholic Church hierarchy and rid their house of the garbage, others won’t have to.
Tony S.,
Please stay and just ignore the offensive posts….I am sure I have been offensive and raunchy more than once…