When an eye doctor's mistake costs you your sight, most firms turn it away. Tim doesn't.
Botched cataract or LASIK surgery, a missed retinal detachment, glaucoma left unmanaged: these cases require someone who can read the medicine, not just the law. Every potential case is reviewed by an independent medical professional, before Tim decides whether to pursue it.
Accepted risk, or avoidable harm?
Eye procedures carry genuine risk, and some vision loss happens despite competent care. That is the first thing you will be told, and sometimes it is true. But an accepted risk is a complication that occurs even when everything is done correctly. It is not a shield for the wrong lens power, a missed emergency, an infection nobody acted on, or a patient who should never have been cleared for the procedure at all.
Ophthalmic cases turn on a second question that most malpractice claims do not face so sharply: timing. A great deal of vision loss is preventable only within a narrow window. Once the damage to the retina or the optic nerve is done, it is generally permanent. That means a delay of days, sometimes even hours, can be the difference between full recovery and lasting loss, and it makes the referral timeline as important as the procedure itself.
So these claims are usually built from two things: what the clinical measurements and imaging actually showed at each visit, and how quickly anyone acted on them. Both are in the record. Neither is visible to a patient who was simply told the outcome was unfortunate.
What an eye injury claim still has to prove
- A duty was owedThe surgeon, ophthalmologist, or optometrist owed you a professional standard of care.
- The standard was breachedCare fell below what a reasonably careful provider would have done with the same findings in front of them.
- The breach caused the lossThe vision loss came from that failure, not solely from the underlying eye condition.
- There are real damagesPermanent visual impairment, further surgery, loss of independence or livelihood, and the cost of living with it.
What counts as eye injury malpractice
Vision claims arise across the whole course of eye care: the decision to operate, the procedure itself, the follow-up, and the referral that either happened in time or did not. These are the categories that come up most often.
Cataract Surgery Errors
One of the most common operations performed anywhere, and usually very safe. Harm arises from an incorrect lens power, damage during the procedure, or a complication that was not caught afterwards.
LASIK and Refractive Surgery
Including patients cleared for surgery who were never good candidates for it, problems with the corneal flap, and inadequate screening or consent before an elective procedure.
Missed or Delayed Retinal Detachment
A true emergency in which the window to preserve sight is short. Claims arise when the classic warning signs are dismissed, or an urgent referral is not made in time.
Glaucoma Mismanagement
Manageable when pressure is monitored and treatment adjusted. Failure to track it, to escalate treatment, or to refer can allow irreversible optic nerve damage.
Untreated Eye Infections
Infection after surgery or injury can threaten sight very quickly. Delay in recognising it, or the wrong treatment, can turn a treatable problem into permanent loss.
Missed Diabetic Eye Disease
Diabetic patients require regular retinal screening. When screening is not arranged, or findings are not acted upon, avoidable and permanent damage can follow.
Medication-Related Vision Damage
Some medications carry recognised risks to vision and require monitoring. Harm can follow from the wrong drug or dose, or from monitoring that was never arranged.
Injection and Anesthesia Injuries
Injury caused during an injection into or around the eye, or from anesthesia administered for an ophthalmic procedure.
Failure to Refer in Time
Often the whole case. A primary care doctor, optometrist, or emergency department sees findings that warrant urgent specialist attention, and the referral is delayed or never made.
You will never be handed off to a junior associate or a call center. When you call this office, you get Tim. He is the same attorney who will see your case through to the end.
Signs worth a second opinion
If you are experiencing sudden vision changes, flashes, floaters, a shadow across your vision, or pain and redness after eye surgery, seek medical care immediately. Those can be emergencies, and treatment cannot wait on a legal question. What follows is about recognising, afterwards, when harm may have been avoidable.
None of these prove negligence on their own. They are the patterns that most often turn out to be worth a closer look at the records.
You reported warning symptoms and were told to wait
Flashes, floaters, or a curtain or shadow across the field of vision are recognised red flags. Being told to come back in a few weeks, rather than being seen urgently, is worth examining.
Your vision was worse after the procedure, not better
Particularly where the loss does not match what you were told to expect, or where no one has given you a clear explanation of what changed.
You developed pain, redness, or discharge after eye surgery
Post-operative infection is time-critical. How quickly it was recognised and treated is frequently the entire question in these cases.
Follow-up appointments were repeatedly delayed
Follow-up is where complications get caught. A pattern of postponed or cancelled reviews often appears in the record long before the harm did.
You were never told about an alternative, or the risk that occurred
If a material risk was never explained, or a different option was never offered, that raises a separate question about whether consent was genuinely informed.
Another eye doctor seemed surprised by your outcome
A second opinion describing your result as unusual or unexpected is often the first honest signal a patient receives.
Why most firms turn these cases away
Patients who lose vision to a preventable error are often surprised at how hard it is to find representation. It is rarely because the claim lacks merit. It is because ophthalmic cases are difficult in specific ways that a general injury practice is not set up to absorb.
- The medicine is specialisedOphthalmology has its own standard of care, its own measurements, and its own imaging. A firm that cannot read the record cannot evaluate the claim.
- Qualified experts are scarceThe pool of ophthalmologists willing to review a colleague's care is small, and engaging one is expensive before a case is even filed.
- Causation is genuinely contestedThe defense will argue the loss came from the underlying eye disease rather than the delay or the error. Separating the two takes expert analysis, not argument.
- The damages need buildingVision loss reshapes a life — driving, working, reading, living independently — in ways that do not appear on a medical bill and have to be documented deliberately.
Tim takes these cases because the practice is already built for them: An independent medical professional reviews the medicine in house before a claim is pursued, and more than 40 years of malpractice work in southern New Mexico courts carries directly into a technical specialty. If the answer turns out to be that your loss was an accepted risk, you will be told that plainly, and early.
By the numbers
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Amounts reflect prior matters; every case depends on its own facts, liability, injuries, insurance, and the law.
Settlements and verdicts won across medical malpractice and personal injury claims.
More than 40 years representing injured clients across southern New Mexico.
Rated by clients for communication, results, and support throughout their case.
How we build an eye injury case
We gather every ophthalmology record
Surgical notes, imaging, pressure and acuity measurements, follow-up visits, and referral timelines, so the full picture is on the table before anything is judged.
A medical professional reviews the medicine
An independent medical professional examines the records against the accepted standard of care for the procedure or condition involved.
We reconstruct the timeline
In vision cases, when something was seen and when someone acted on it often matters more than what was done. The dates carry the case.
We give you an honest answer before moving forward
Some vision loss is an accepted risk of treatment, not negligence. You get a straight answer about which one happened to you before deciding whether to proceed.
“They never missed a beat. The communication was excellent and timely, way above what we expected. I would recommend anyone in need of legal services call Tim Chelpaty.”Chris S. · Las Cruces, NM · via Lawyers.com
Was your vision loss preventable?
That is the only question that matters, and it is not one you can answer from the outside. If something about your eye care does not sit right, our plain-English guide walks through the warning signs and when it is worth having the records reviewed.
Answers about eye injury claims
Vision loss cases raise questions that don't come up in most injury claims. These are the questions Tim hears most often from patients and families.
Visit the Resource Center →Not automatically. Every surgery and treatment carries some accepted risk, and not every bad outcome means a provider was negligent. Malpractice generally requires showing that your provider fell below the accepted standard of care and that the failure caused your vision loss. That's why the medical records are reviewed by an independent medical professional before Tim decides whether to pursue a claim.
That explanation may be accurate, or it may not be the full picture. An independent medical review can help determine whether the outcome truly reflected an accepted risk of the procedure, or whether a step was missed along the way. It is worth having a second, independent look before accepting that answer.
It starts with the medical records: surgical notes, imaging, measurements, follow-up visits, and the timeline of what was done and when. An independent medical professional reviews that record against the accepted standard of care for the procedure, which helps determine whether a deviation occurred and whether it caused the harm.
It does not prevent a claim. A large share of vision cases turn on a failure to refer urgently: a primary care physician, optometrist, or emergency department sees findings that warranted immediate specialist attention and does not act. Responsibility follows whoever failed to meet the standard, whatever their specialty.
Yes. Partial recovery does not mean there was no avoidable harm, and it does not erase the period of loss, the additional treatment, or any permanent deficit that remains. It is worth having the records looked at either way.
Medical malpractice deadlines in New Mexico can be strict and fact-specific, and in many cases the clock starts at the time of the negligence rather than when the patient discovers it. Because exceptions exist and missing a deadline can end a valid claim, it is best to speak with Tim as early as possible.
Nothing. The initial case review is free and confidential, and Tim handles eye injury malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning there is no attorney fee unless he recovers for you.
Lost vision after eye surgery or a delayed diagnosis? Let's find out what happened.
Tim offers a free, confidential case review for eye injury malpractice claims across southern New Mexico. No obligation, no cost. Just an honest, medically informed look at your situation.