Jury Awards $15 Million To Groton Woman After Devastating Surgery Outcome

GROTON, CT — A jury awarded a Groton woman $15.1 million after finding Yale-New Haven Hospital negligent and responsible for blinding her during surgery.

Lioudmila Pyleva, 85, was rendered blind when toxic antiseptic solution was allowed to drip into and stay in her only seeing eye while she was unconscious during brain surgery, according to a statement from the woman's attorneys.

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Pyleva, who was 78 at the time, went for surgery on a non-cancerous brain tumor at Yale-New Haven Hospital in April 2019. The case alleged that a neurosurgeon negligently handled chemicals Hibiclens and Chloraprep, causing Pyleva to lose sight in her right eye.

When Pyleva awoke from surgery, she immediately reported a burning sensation in her right eye, and an examination later that day found that nearly 90 percent of the corneal surface had been destroyed, according to the statement from Bridgeport law firm Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, PC.

This ultimately led to the loss of vision in her right eye. Pyleva had lacked useful sight in her left eye since childhood, making her functionally blind following surgery.

"My mother is my hero, and the strongest person I have ever known," Evgenia Neff, Pyleva's daughter and conservator, said in the statement. "This verdict is a vindication not only of what my mother has lost, but the full value of her amazing life. I am grateful to her lawyers and the jury for seeing my mother as a full human being. I hope this verdict means no one else will ever go through what my mom did."

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