Question

Discussion Question #1: A patient in her mid-twenties saw an ophthalmologist for a routine eye exam. Due to her young age, a glaucoma est was not performed. She later was diagnosed with glaucoma and sued the ophthalmology group, alleging negligence in failing to preform a glaucoma test. The defense argued hat the standard of care was to not administer the test to patients younger than 40 because the instance of glaucoma at younger ages was rare. Which of the following statements do you think best describes the applicable standard of care in this case? Explain your choice. 1. The defense should prevail because the reasonable, customary, and prudent course of action followed by practitioners in the same or similar circumstances would be the same. 2. The plaintiff should prevail because all patients should be protected against glaucoma, regardless of age.

Answer 1

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases characterized by increase intraocular pressure that results in damage to the optic nerve. Commonly it affects adults over the age of 40 years. In this scenario the most appropriate statement is 2) The plaintiff should prevail because all patients should be protected against glaucoma regardless of age.

Ophthalmologist fails to use noncontract tonometry to screen the glaucoma in patient less than 40 years of age. Normally glaucoma causes ireversible damage in the vision if it is not treaed at the earliest. Glaucoma can even detected by simple non invasive test, and offcourse the disease can be successfully cured using early detection approach.