A man is suing Sydney Eye Hospital over a routine procedure he says caused his eye to erupt like a “balloon full of water”, leaving him screaming, crying and ultimately blind in one eye.
Giovanni Busa, from Padstow in Sydney’s south-west, went to the hospital’s emergency department in April 2015 complaining of pain in his left eye, five days after a procedure to remove the synthetic oil inserted during retina reattachment surgery four months prior.
Giovanni Busa says he has spent more than $300,000 on medical and legal costs. “I have to see justice,” he says. Credit: Nikki Short
Doctors told him they needed to do a “tap and inject” procedure to treat a suspected infection.
Busa said he counted seven injections into his eye. On the eighth, he said his eye erupted in unbearable pain.
“The only way I can describe it is like when you’ve got a balloon full of water, and it bursts, and water splatters everywhere,” he said. “I couldn’t bear the pain. I screamed for my sister to come into the room.”
When she arrived, Busa’s sister saw “blood on his white T-shirt” and her brother wiping blood from his eyes with a handful of tissues.
“My brother was traumatised,” Tommasa Antonelli said. “He was shaking uncontrollably and in a state of shock.”
Giovanni Busa and Alona Danilishyna at home in Padstow, south-west Sydney.Credit: Nikki Short
He was taken upstairs for emergency surgery and spent six days in hospital. Busa said the vision in his left eye never recovered.
Busa, who has Type 2 diabetes, was a regular patient at the eye hospital before his retina surgery. People with diabetes are at far greater risk of developing glaucoma as high blood sugar levels can raise pressure in the eye and damage the optic nerve.
In a document submitted to the court, the doctor who performed the procedure said that, while his recollection of the incident was limited, he would not have made more than three injections to “tap” a sample.
The doctor said clinical notes from five days after the procedure noted Busa was feeling better and “feels he sees clearer”. However, he accepted he did not make an entry in Busa’s clinical notes in relation to the tap procedure he performed, and that he was “very apologetic” for not doing so.
Busa noticed this gap in his medical record only when he visited the hospital in 2017 for treatment on his right eye, prompting him to submit an official complaint about his treatment.
The parties could not reach a settlement agreement during mediation this month. A hearing in the Supreme Court this month will determine when the case will go to trial.
Busa’s statement of claim alleges the hospital breached its duty of care in failing to warn him about the potential pain, failing to document the procedure and “failing to perform the procedure competently”.
South East Sydney Local Health District did not respond to detailed questions. A spokeswoman said it would not be appropriate to comment while the matter was before the courts.
The hospital, in its response to the court proceedings, denied all 10 allegations of negligence and denied Busa was entitled to damages.
The retired truck driver said he has spent more than $300,000 on legal and medical costs, including flying to Italy in December 2021 to get a second opinion from a doctor in Naples.
Having sold his two-storey home in Middleton Grange, he lives in a one-bedroom housing commission flat in Padstow with his wife, Alona Danilishyna.
“It’s not about the money any more. I have to see justice,” he said.
Danilishyna, who is Ukrainian and has British citizenship, wants to leave Australia with her husband, but the couple is in financial limbo until the case is resolved.
“This is a great country,” she said. “But for people like us, [who] are not rich, you can’t find justice here.”
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