Legal News

Jan Fearnley, 47, the author of Mr Wolf’s Pancakes, which was shortlisted for a Blue Peter Award who underwent short sight error surgery, was left scarred for life.

The children’s author and illustrator was operated upon by the ophthalmologist Dr Haralabos Eleftheriadis which was supposed to be a routine operation for the doctor.

The doctor who bungled the operation was found guilty of professional misconduct yet Mrs Fearnly had to wait for five years fighting for compensation. She has been awarded £250,000 in compensation after she was left her with blurred vision.

Yesterday, she said she would return the money ‘in an instant’ if she could reverse years of suffering that ‘nearly destroyed’ her.

Mrs Fearnley, who had the procedure at the Ultralase Clinic in Guildford, Surrey, in April 2005, said that the scar in her eye was something she had to wake up every morning and had to constantly staring through a scar and there was no day when she did not worry about it. And in the months of winter with reduced daylight hours she suffers the most she added.

The Lasik procedure is designed to permanently change the shape of the cornea, the clear covering at the front of the eye.

To prepare the eye, very high pressures are applied via a suction ring. A cutting instrument is then used to make a flap in the cornea, before laser energy is applied to remove corneal tissue.

Mrs Fearnley told the General Medical Council in 2007 that Dr Eleftheriadis, of Northwood, North-West London, ‘fumbled’ with the laser equipment before removing it from her eye. He then apologised and said that he could not continue.

Mrs Fearnley told The Mail on Sunday that Dr Eleftheriadis had lied that anything was wrong with her impaired vision when she questioned him, despite him knowing full well that the scars were irreversible she said.

The GMC ruled Dr Eleftheriadis’s actions were ‘inappropriate, unprofessional and not in Mrs Fearnley’s best interests’. He had incorrectly tried to achieve suction on her left eye more than once, which resulted in a tear to her cornea. However, the GMC did not suspend his registration as a doctor after he agreed to training and supervision.

Mrs Fearnley had two operations to correct the damage but still has blurred vision and sees double lines when she reads. In a settlement with Dr Eleftheriadis’s insurers, the author has now been awarded £250,000.

Mrs Fearnley said that the compensation represented five years’ earnings of her life and that it keep her from losing her home.

She added that she was ready to return the money if she had an option to go back a day before in time when her surgery was botched.