Driver of SUV crashes in on patient's eye surgery, vehicle stops just inches from man on gurney

Newark Star Ledger ^ | 08.24.05 | JONATHAN CASIANO

[Coleus]

Performing eye surgery is no simple task. Even with the aid of sophisticated instruments, the slightest miscalculation can cause irreparable damage to the patient's sight.

One South Orange surgeon learned yesterday morning, however, that the work is far more difficult when a 4,300-pound SUV comes barreling through the wall during an operation.

Bernard Spier was finishing a routine cataract surgery at Northern New Jersey Eye Institute at 8:37 a.m. yesterday when another patient drove his red Toyota 4Runner through the wall, stopping just inches from Spier and the patient lying partially sedated on a gurney in the middle of the room.

"I had my back to the wall, and I was looking through the microscope when I heard an explosion," Spier said as he sat amid the wreckage yesterday afternoon. "I looked off to the right, and all I saw was the wall caving in, and then I started to see the SUV."

With the front end of the vehicle inside the building and the front wheels spinning a cloud of dark smoke, Spier and his staff rushed the patient out of the room. A witness ran in from the parking lot and pulled the driver from the vehicle.

When the cataract patient regained all of his senses, his gurney was sitting on the sidewalk in front of the building while the SUV remained lodged in the operating room wall.

According to the police accident report, Floyd Hunt Jr., 77, of Newark was trying to back out of a parking space outside the operating room, but he failed to put the car into reverse.

When he hit the gas, the SUV hopped the curb and plowed through the wall, bending steel beams, buckling the ceiling and damaging a $70,000 ultrasound machine used to break up and remove cataracts.

[martin_fierro]

Driver of SUV crashes in on patient's eye surgery

The MSM is learning that SUVs don't drive themselves.

[CindyDawg]

I'm sure the doctor looked up and said "an SUV"

[spunkets]

"Floyd Hunt Jr., 77, of Newark was trying to back out of a parking space outside the operating room, but he failed to put the car into reverse."

Just keep that hammer down and you'll go forward. Just give it some time.

[SAJ]

An ultrasound machine to ''break up'' cataracts? Somebody's kidding somebody, here.

A cataract is an occlusion on the lens; they aren't to be 'broken up'', they're to be scraped or removed by other means.

In any case (speaking as someone who had intraocular phacoemulsification performed to eliminate cataracts on both eyes in Feb 2003), the standard of art for other than the very mildest of cataracts or for people with dodgey BP is the insertion of a prosthetic lens.

Ultrasound? For cataracts? In this day and age?

Aw, c'mon, guy...sheesh.

[Grani]

An ultrasound machine to ''break up'' cataracts? Somebody's kidding somebody, here. A cataract is an occlusion on the lens; they aren't to be 'broken up'', they're to be scraped or removed by other means.

I too had cataract surgery in 2004 on both eyes. I was completely awake during the procedure. The doctor explained they used the ultrasound to break up the cataract so it can be vacuumed out. They then insert the plastic lens corrected to perfect your vision. If you Google "ultrasound" and "cataract", there are a number of sources explaining how the ultrasound is used.

[SAJ]

Interesting. My surgery didn't involve ''breaking up'' the cataracts at all; the doctor dissolved (''emulsified'') the lens(es) and accomplished this not with ultrasound but with several 3-15 millijoule bursts from some sort of AG laser, then vacuumed out the residue and popped in the prosthetic lens (they fold it or roll it up, pop it into the laser incision slot, and **boom** it unfolds in a twinkle. Like you, I was awake throughout, great slo-mo light show (g!).

26 minutes by the clock for, effectively, a brand-new eye...no way to beat that, eh?

FReegards and good vision to you!

[SAJ]

BTW, in the procedure you and I had, they don't ''break up'' the cataract(s), which is/are internal warpings within the lens. Instead, they dissolve the whole lens,in my case at least using a laser, then suck out the residue and pop in the new prosthetic lens.
'

[Grani]

Interesting that we had different methods of out with the old, but the end result is, as far as I'm concerned, a miracle! I wore glasses since third grade, and I'm now 20/20 and no longer require corrective lenses on my driver's license.

You got that one right about the awesome light show! What a trip!

[tdscpa]

I've got all of you beat. I've had three cataract surgeries.

[tdscpa]

Explanation:

Some time (ten days to two weeks) after my second one, I woke up with severe pain in my eye. Turned on the bathroom light to look at my eye, using the mirror. All I could see with that eye was severe glare. Seems the implanted lens slipped out of position somehow. (medical malpractice?) Probably.

I did not get rich off of it, but I did get a free third cataract surgery.

[laker_dad]

"She's the one I, one I, one I...
she's the one I, one I love...

[Coleus]

SUV Crashes Into Operating Room During Surgery

[Coleus]

just damn