Parents, doctor settle lawsuit in boy’s blindness
- Publication: The Morning Call
- By: Debbie Garlicki
Parents of an 8½-year-old boy and the doctor they claim is responsible for his blindness this week settled a malpractice suit after their trial started in Lehigh County Court.
William and Barbara Weaver of 202 N. Irving St., Allentown, settled their suit against Dr. Harvey S. Cheng for an undisclosed amount, according to their lawyer, Todd Miller of Allentown.
The settlement was reached Monday afternoon after jurors heard Miller’s opening statement in the trial before Judge Thomas A. Wallitsch. Miller and Cheng’s lawyer, Neil L. Conway, met in the judge’s chambers, and the jury was dismissed.
The Weavers alleged Cheng’s negligence left their son, Wesley, blind in the left eye and with light perception in his right eye.
The couple said they took their son to Cheng in 1987 because Wesley’s left eye turned in toward his nose and made him look cross-eyed.
Cheng performed a retinal examination and later performed surgery and prescribed glasses for the boy. The boy’s eyes then appeared straight.
Mrs. Weaver contended that she told Cheng in subsequent visits she was concerned about Wesley’s sight because he couldn’t see well with his glasses and would take them off.
The doctor later performed visual acuity tests on the boy that showed his sight was deteriorating, according to the parents.
In 1989, the couple took the boy to a different doctor and again voiced concerns that he could not see with glasses. That doctor recommended the boy be seen by a retinal specialist.
By December 1989, the boy could only see hand motions 2 feet in front of him.
It was determined the boy had retinoschisis, a congenital condition in which the retina splits from the eye, ultimately causing the retina to detach.
The turning inward of the eye and decreased vision were signs of that, the Weavers said.
The suit alleged that if Cheng had diagnosed the retinal detachment earlier, the boy’s retina could have been surgically reattached sooner, increasing the chances of better vision.
The Weavers said their son, a gifted child, is learning Braille but asks when he will be able to see again.
The couple intended to show jurors videotapes of ophthalmologists who would have testified about whether the doctor departed from accepted standards of care.
They also planned to call a psychologist to testify about how the child is dealing with his blindness and a vocational economic expert to testify about his child’s decreased earning capacity in the future because of his handicap.
