$420,000 awarded after damaging LASIK eye surgery

Leo Morin Morin v. Weston

Leo Morin, of Veneta, Oregon, wanted glasses that weighed less. His prescription made his lenses big and heavy. Because he worked as an industrial electrician, his eyeglasses doubled as safety glasses. They actually had to be made out of glass and not a lighter plastic material.

Not a good candidate for LASIK surgery

He had surgery on both eyes on June 15, 2000. In the days following surgery, he began to realize something wasn’t right. His left eye, in particular, was worse. At eye exams, when he was asked to look at the eye chart on the wall, he couldn’t make out any letters.

He learned he had not been a good candidate for LASIK surgery. The combination of his pupil size and the refraction of his eye meant he would have problems. He also learned that the doctors literally plugged the wrong refraction into the computer.

Finding legal counsel

“The idea of suing someone was foreign to me,” Morin says. “I don’t think of myself as a confrontational type person.” Yet, as he considered his situation and conversed more with other victims of LASIK surgery, legal action became a real option. He made contact with Lawrence Baron and Greg Zeuthen.

“Greg and Larry reminded me of Gary Cooper in High Noon,” recalls Morin. “You could tell they knew a lot about Lasik surgery. I thought, ‘These are the guys.’”

 $420,000 awarded in damages

The case went before a Lane County Circuit Court jury in Eugene on April 9, 2002. On April 11, the jury came back with a verdict against the doctor and awarded Morin $420,000 in damages.

Today, Morin struggles with his eyesight. He suffers from “dry eyes.” The dry eyes make his eyes feel like he’s in a hot, dusty, desert wind. He relies mostly on his right eye for vision as his left eye produces what he describes as “a dozen double images.” In artificial light, Morin says he sees about 40 percent of what he could see prior to his surgery.